


Polka Dotted Beasts

by AliceUpdate



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Angst and Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Lukanette, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Mild Language, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Reverse Crush (Miraculous Ladybug), Sexual Content, Unrequited Love, new villain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:34:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24328111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceUpdate/pseuds/AliceUpdate
Summary: After Hawk Moth’s supposed defeat, our two favorite superheroes now have to defend Paris against the attacks of another villain: Necro. In order to even have a chance against the latter, Ladybug decides to have Viperion join her and her partner’s team permanently, something Cat Noir isn’t too pleased about.Though he perfectly understands how valuable of an asset this addition could be, he just feels like something is off about the guy, what with him always acting so snaky—pun absolutely intended—all the damn time. He didn’t know how to explain it exactly, he just knew that he didn’t particularly feel the urge to trust him with his life and whatnot.And before you ask him, no, it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Luka was dating Marinette. That would just be childish. And ridiculous. Cat Noir wasn’t jealous. He was happy for them. No, really.Oh well, that sure ought to tweak up the dynamics of the famous (former) duo. Drama ensues… I mean, obviously.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois/Lê Chiến Kim, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Other Miraculous Ladybug Character(s)/Other Miraculous Ladybug Character(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 39





	1. Nights in White Satin

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again! I can't seem to be able to let go of these two...  
> Ugh, but there are so many Marichat fics' already... I know! Here's another one! :P Enjoy!! O:)

Even though she knew very well she was never going to admit it out loud, Marinette silently blessed her partner for suggesting they put on masks before they transformed. The one she had chosen covered her entire face with white and gold and Volto patterns, and had two small sheets of black fabric sewn at the back, over the eyeholes, to hide her eyes. Of course, the silk was transparent, so she could still see everything around her.

The room was dark, with only a small light hanging from the ceiling, and there were three Asian men in suits glaring at her and muttering at each other as they did. They were speaking Mandarin, completely confident in the fact that she didn’t understand anything.

They had sat her down on a chair and tied her up, and she could feel the tough material of the rope, scratching the thin skin around her wrists, as she actively tried to free her hands.

Suddenly, one of the three men—the one that was standing in the middle—got up and turned around, walking toward the scientist that was working on the table behind them, carefully studying the magical gems that constituted the earrings of the Ladybug.

“What is taking so long?!” he screamed, slamming his fist onto the table, making the scientist look up instantly. It was a woman, dressed in a white long sleeve knee-length lab gown. She was very pale, and Marinette immediately recognized the very distinctive shape of her appearance, her long face and pointy jaw, her cat eye glasses, and the way her short, washed-out purple hair frenzied around her angry head. “You have been at it for almost an hour! Be done with it, already! The other one will be here any minute, now.”

“It—it’s not an easy thing to do, you know? I—I n—need time!” Mrs. Mendeleiev dared to reply. “It’s not exactly something one can pull off in barely a couple of seconds.”

“Well, seconds is all you have left, so _wrap it up_ ,” the man hissed, and with the way he addressed her, Marinette thought he might as well have spit on her old teacher’s face.

As he returned to his men, he noticed his prisoner’s discreet shifting, and ordered them to check her ties. Marinette grunted, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.

“You’re not gonna try and get this mask off me?” she challenged him, her voice strong and unfaltering, when the two men went back to stand behind their boss.

“I have absolutely no interest in knowing who you are, Ladybug,” the latter retorted. “Only cowards hide their faces, too ashamed or afraid to confront everything they have done. My name is Han Tianjian. Feel free to look it up, once you get out of here,” he said with a confident smirk.

Marinette was a bit surprised when he told her his name, and was thankful her mask hid hers. “What do you want with my earrings?” she asked.

“What does anyone wants with them?”

She shrugged. “It depends, really. You have many options to choose from: world domination, world annihilation, revenge… Bringing people back from the dead… So? Which is it?”

Tianjian sighed. “You think we are the enemy, that all we seek is destruction. You are wrong.”

Only then, Marinette had discerned his accent; he had the same as Master Fu’s. This bit threw her off a little, but she tried to stay focused, and not to think too much of it. “Great,” she groaned. “Just what we needed—a deranged philanthropist who thinks his psycho ideas will save the world. Listen, _Thanos_ , the planet is doing fine, alright? We don’t need your compassion.”

Tianjian chose not to reply and instead turned his attention to his accomplices, ignoring Marinette’s petty remarks. He wore a thick golden ring on his middle finger, adorned with a giant ruby that shone darkly and mysteriously, almost as beautiful as the black diamonds of her Miraculous. The surface of the gem was polished expertly, glowing with a satiny sheen, as if the jewel were magic. Delicate arabesques had been carved on the band of the ring with the utmost care, and Marinette remembered the elegant designs that were engraved on her partner’s ring, which had been forged in black gold and emeralds.

“Where did you get that?” she wondered, gesturing to Tianjian’s jewel. “I’ve never seen that Miraculous before. Which is it?”

Tianjian raised an eyebrow at her, looking amused by her confusion. “This is the Lion Miraculous,” he said, “symbol of nobility, royalty, and valor. It was gifted to me by Necro. Its roar gives me the power to weaken and impair my enemies. How else did you think we were able to capture you, and whisk you away from your beloved Cat Noir?” He chuckled threateningly. “My men are no Miraculous holders; there is nothing magic about them. The only advantage they had over you was their number. We were losing, I don’t mind admitting defeat. So, I had to step in. Don’t you remember, Ladybug?”

Blurry images made their way through Marinette’s brain and she vaguely recalled having heard a deafening sound, something like a thousand explosions, right before she’d lost consciousness. Cat Noir had been the first to fall, dropping to his knees, his hands pressed against his leather ears and his face twisted in pain and anguish, and she suddenly remembered running to him, meandering over piles of unconscious bodies, to get to him before he hit the ground. She hadn’t been fast enough, though. Her face whitened at the realization.

“What did you do to him?” she almost screamed, tugging on her ties as strongly as she could, but all efforts were wasted. “ _Where_ is he? Where is Cat Noir?”

“We left him there,” Tianjian said calmly. “He wasn’t transformed when we took you, but still wearing that same mask you have. Don’t worry,” he added with a mean grin, “I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

Marinette was about to say something, when she was cut off by the beeping of her earrings. The heads of the three men snapped back at Mrs. Mendeleiev as one, and Marinette could see the pride that glimmered in her former teacher’s eyes.

“Hey! What are you doing?! Stop this!” the Ladybug Miraculous holder ordered them, but they all just ignored her, and walked toward the set of black diamond earrings that rested at the center of the table Mendeleiev was working on.

“Is it done?” asked Tianjian, his lips pursing into a terrifying smile.

Mendeleiev didn’t say anything, as she fished some strange monitoring device from the big bag sitting at her feet and started to measure the air around Marinette’s Miraculous. “The density of the magnetic field around this Miraculous is unmatched!” she exclaimed, completely in awe, while the machine in her hands had started shaking and beeping almost as furiously as the magic earrings. “I have never seen something like this before. The power of the Ladybug truly is the greatest I have ever been able to record!” she carried on, laughing maniacally, as she rapidly scribbled some notes on a piece of paper, writing down formulas and numbers neither Tianjian nor his men understood.

“Stop messing around Mendeleiev,” the latter spat. “At last do what you were brought here to do!”

The scientist woman shook her head. “You don’t understand,” she argued. “The Ladybug Miraculous is far too great. It cannot be tricked, otherwise it will repost. Just like the Black Cat Miraculous. I—I will need more time to s—study it properly…”

Tianjian scowled at her, making her blush and glance away. “And then, what? Will you be able to trick it?”

“I—I… M—maybe…”

“Then do it _now_ ,” he ordered her. “Hoax it the same way the Peacock Miraculous was damaged.”

Marinette felt her heart stop in her chest and suddenly, she felt like she might cry. “Stop!” she shouted at the little group, and there were tears in her voice, filling up her throat. “Please! Mrs. Mendeleiev, don’t do it!”

Mrs. Mendeleiev’s eyes instantly snapped at Marinette, and she looked at Tianjian’s prisoner with very pale cheeks and a sad look on her face. She didn’t say a word, and started working on the earrings again, as she blocked out Marinette’s pleads.

“Han Tianjian!” the bluenette called after Mrs. Mendeleiev’s boss, as one last attempt. “You say you’re not a coward. If that’s true, then untie me and let’s fight.”

Tianjian snickered under his breath, as he turned back to his prisoner. “How stupid to you think I am? The Lion Miraculous is powerful, but it is no match to yours,” he admitted, gently stroking the red gem on his ring. “I have you right where I want you. You’re trying to buy yourself some time,” he guessed, taking a careful step toward Marinette. “It is no use. We’re almost done. We’ll let you go.”

“Then why put yourself in all that trouble?” Marinette countered. “If you’re going to let me go anyway, why not simply have stolen my earrings while I was asleep?”

“Because you would’ve likely come after me with an army of other Miraculouses,” he replied. “I do not have the manpower to defeat all twenty of you. But, if I took _you_ … I will only have Cat Noir to worry about, since you are the Guardian of the Miraculouses, and your partner surely doesn’t know where you’ve hidden the box.” Marinette wanted to respond but, as soon as she opened her mouth, her words died on her tongue, and she realized she didn’t have anything to say. “Did my answer please you, Ladybug?” he grinned widely, before turning back to Mendeleiev.

As much as she hated to admit, Tianjian’s plan actually made sense. He was smart, extremely calculative, and did not waste time or effort on things that were unimportant. For this alone, he wasn’t like any villain she had ever battled before. He didn’t try to hide who he was, either—he just straight up told her his name. He also told her he owned a Miraculous—the Lion Miraculous, no less.

Marinette had never heard of any other Miraculouses than the ones she kept in her Miracle box. She knew the Guardians’ Temple in Tibet had been restored after Cat Noir and she had defeated Feast a few years back, but she never knew if the Miraculouses that were destroyed by the Sentimonster have been recovered. Well, they had, now, apparently. Who _was_ that guy?

On the center of Mendeleiev’s table, her earrings were still beeping and, this time, let out a sound that resembled the unmistakable screech of a kwami in pain. Marinette screamed at her kidnappers to leave her Miraculous alone, but of course, they just kept on ignoring her, rather turning their attention to the set of magic jewels, which had started to glow, a deep pink light spreading around them like some sort of hazardous halo. One of Tianjian’s men stretched out a hand to try and touch it, but, as soon as he did, he shouted in pain, jumping back, before Mendeleiev reprimanded him.

“If it wasn’t clear before, do _not_ touch the radioactive Miraculous,” she said, frowning at that same man, who was still holding his electrocuted fingers close to his chest.

“What is that?” Tianjian wanted to know immediately. “Why is it doing this?”

“I don’t know,” replied Mendeleiev.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I mean, I don’t know.” She had spoken in a somber voice this time, as if too focused on Marinette’s Miraculous to remember how scared of Tianjian she really was. “This has never happened with me before. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s…it’s kind of extraordinary.”

“Fix it!” Tianjian exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at the scientist woman. “Fix it, _now_.”

Mendeleiev straightened her shoulders, glancing timidly away, and, if Marinette didn’t know her better, she’d think her former teacher was about to cry. “Y—yes, sir.”

The young woman almost felt bad for her, but then, she remembered that Mendeleiev was trying to trick her Miraculous—whatever the Hell that meant—and all sentiment of compassion simply vanished. And where the _fuck_ was Cat Noir?

As soon as the thought made it to her brain, two shiny glow-in-the dark green cat-like eyes appeared at the window, and Marinette was sure she would recognize them amongst a thousand others. She smiled behind her mask, and she let herself relax. He gestured at her to stay put, to distract Tianjian and his men, while he’d search for a way in. Suddenly, her cheeks grew hot, and red, and her heart was beating a hundred miles an hour, as it sunk deep into her chest, like a giant ball of steel, but she shook away the feeling and tried to focus on the task at hand.

“Why are you doing this, Mrs. Mendeleiev?” she thought she could kill two birds with one stone—distract Tianjian, and slow down Mendeleiev. “You were the first physicist to have discovered the way kwamis were assembled. Why are you trying to destroy them, now?” she asked, before gesturing to Tianjian. “What do they have on you?”

“You think I was forced to be here, Ladybug?” she snickered. “I joined Tianjian’s organization of my own free will. Do you think it is easy to dedicate your _life_ to such a controversial…issue? To be shunned by the entire scientific community because you were trying to find a sense to _magic_ …?”

“We do not need you to entertain the prisoner,” Tianjian dryly reminded her. “Don’t let a teenager get in your head.”

Marinette didn’t know if she should feel insulted by Tianjian’s remark—I mean, come on, she wasn’t a teenager anymore, thank you very much—but she saw very well the distraught way in which Mendeleiev’s face twisted, when he said these words. He was calling on her to be more alert, smarter and quicker, which made it look as if he didn’t trust her at all.

It was a clever move, not to trust anyone, Marinette thought. This way, no one would ever be able to betray you. Tianjian had one less thing to worry about, and that made him all the more dangerous.

Hawk Moth had Mayura; this was what had ultimately brought him to his downfall, Marinette believed. She didn’t really know, actually: the supervillain had disappeared shortly after Master Fu had relinquished the Miracle box to Ladybug during one decisive battle, a few years ago, and the last time anyone had ever seen him was when he had to flee the scene, with an injured Mayura in his arms, on the back of a creepy Sentimonster. Not a single akuma had risen after that, but Marinette’s Miracle box still missed the Moth and the Peacock Miraculouses.

“What happened to the Moth Miraculous?” Marinette thought she’d try her luck. “Did you have anything to do with Hawk Moth and Mayura’s disappearance?”

Tianjian scoffed, and shook his head. “The man that hid behind the mask of the Moth was a child, starved for affection and attention, and whose incentives were unsound and selfish. They say that you are the best Ladybug of all time, yet you were still unable to take back his Miraculous from him,” he added, playing with the ends of his mustache, and he was staring at her, smiling emptily, a grim look on his face. “Hawk Moth was ought to fail. Leadership was never the destiny of the Moth Miraculous.” He let out a deep sigh, before he spoke again, “I am not, however, the one who put an end to his…reign.”

“Who was it, then?” Marinette wondered, and she was certain Tianjian would’ve answered her, if Cat Noir hadn’t hit him on the back of his head, knocking him out, cold. As the Lion Miraculous holder’s body fell on the floor, Marinette finally saw that those of his accomplices, in addition to that of Mrs. Mendeleiev, were unconscious as well. “You took your time,” the bluenette remarked, smirking, before she realized the mask she wore hid her entire face.

Cat Noir only rolled his eyes at her. “You know I can’t track you, when you’re not wearing your costume,” he replied, clicking his tongue. “I had to wait for one of them to wake up so I could follow him. Do you know how many abandoned factories there are in the peripheries of Paris?”

“Is that where we are?” Marinette wondered. “What a cliché.”

Cat Noir snickered, shaking his head, as he made his way behind her. The rope was tightly wrapped around her, tied so well, she could barely breathe. He tried to undo it carefully at first, but his long cat claws kept getting caught between the knots, unable to cut through them, and he slowly began to run out of patience.

“ _Easy_ , now, tiger,” Marinette whinged when he let out an irritated grunt. “Don't cut _me_.”

“Sorry” he sighed. “It's very tight.”

“Well, can't you just turn them to dust?” she asked.

He could, but he’ll have to drop his transformation and feed his kwami before invoking his _Cataclysm_ again, so he was not sure if that would indeed be the best move for them right now. In the end, though, he knew he’d rather waste a few minutes waiting for Plagg to recharge than risk hurting his partner, especially if he could avoid it. “Yeah, okay, fine,” he mumbled before he quietly called on his annihilating powers and touched the rope that held Marinette’s wrists together, watching them dissolve to ash.

Marinette eagerly got to her feet after that, stretching her arms above her head as she did. “Ah! That feels _good_! I’ve been sitting there for hours, probably,” she said, turning around to look at her partner. “I hope you didn’t miss me too much.”

He looked somewhat amused by her comment, but didn’t retort. “Come on,” he urged her instead, walking toward Mendeleiev’s station to retrieve the earrings, which had since stopped glowing. He handed them to Marinette. “We need to get out of here. I think I triggered some kind of alarm when I got in. It won’t be long before they try to trap us.”

Marinette nodded as she took back her Miraculous and called on her transformation— A bright pink light invaded the room, her Ladybug suit nicely coming together, and she could finally feel the air on her face again. “Before we go…” she whispered, carefully approaching Tianjian’s sleeping silhouette, and kneeling beside him, slowly reaching for the ring of the Lion.

“ _What_ are you doing?”

“Shhh! don’t wake him _up_!” Ladybug was quick to reply, gently sliding the ring off Tianjian’s middle finger. “It’s a Miraculous,” she explained. “He used its power to defeat us. _That_ ’s how we lost consciousness.”

“So, you’re _stealing_ it? You can’t do that,” Cat Noir countered, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, well… He stole it first,” Ladybug shot back.

Cat Noir pouted, but didn’t argue any further. “Whatever. We’ll see what Damocles has to say about it. We need to go. Now.”

“You should relax,” Ladybug remarked, chuckling. “Go to your happy place,” she added, as she put on the ring.

“ _Ladybug_. What are you doing?!” Cat Noir seemed extremely unpleased with her sudden attitude.

“Are you in your happy place, kitten?” she asked cheekily. “It’s real easy, you know. Just picture me everywhere,” she told him, and she was about to add something else, when a lion-shaped kwami appeared before them, changing the Miraculous’ color.

“Hello,” he greeted the pair cautiously. He looked a bit afraid and shy. “I’m Jafari. Who are you?”

Ladybug gave him her loveliest smile. “Hey there, Jafari. I’m Ladybug. I’m the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous. And the grumpy head over there is Cat Noir, my partner. He holds the Miraculous of the Black Cat.”

Jafari looked them both up and down and frowned. “What do you want with me, then? You already have Miraculouses.”

Ladybug would be lying if she said that Jafari’s answer didn’t surprise her, but she tried not to look too taken aback by the whole situation. “I think Tianjian intends to use your powers to do harm. This is why I’m taking you away from him, that’s all.”

“And who made _you_ chief in command?” Jafari almost barked. “What tells me that you’re not the bad guy, here?” he stated, gesturing to his former owner’s unconscious body, then to the others, his accomplices, and finally to that of Mrs. Mendeleiev. Ladybug raised an eyebrow and swallowed audibly, not sure what to answer to that.

“Paris is _our_ city, and your holder attacked _us_ ,” Cat Noir said to the little floating lion, who glared at him in return. The superhero didn’t flutter. “You’re a kwami, _we_ have your Miraculous, now. You believe us because we said so, period,” he carried on, before turning to Ladybug and placing his hand over her shoulder. “Come on, we need to move. I can already hear their footsteps in the hallways.”

Ladybug nodded and called Jafari inside the ring, before she followed after her partner, who tried to find his way through miles of very dimly-lit passages. “Okay, that was _hot_. Ouh, I love it when you become all bossy and assertive like that. Makes me feel like my baby kitten is becoming a cat…”

“Did you hit your head or something?” he asked, as he pushed her toward a dark corner, whilst a regiment of armed men raced past them.

They were all shouting loudly, moving as one, as they spread into the halls like a virus, setting fire to the lanterns on the walls and kicking open every door, inspecting every single room they came across. Ladybug and Cat Noir stood there for a while, completely silent, staring at the enraged soldiers, who seemed ready to tear their lair apart just to put their hands on the intruders.

One of Tianjian’s men—he was big and tall, with a thick black beard and an angry red scar on his face—strolled into the hallway where they were hiding, rising his lantern above his head to wash out the darkness, and Ladybug pulled her partner toward the shadows, hugging him tightly as she leaned her back against the wall, pressing herself fully against him.

“Close your eyes,” she instructed him, whispering.

Cat Noir blinked at her in complete disbelief. “W- _what_?”

Ladybug didn’t exactly know what he thought she meant, but still couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt by his reaction. “You have eyes that glow in the dark,” she quickly explained herself. “Fucking _close_ them,” she hissed at him this time, and he couldn’t but obey.

This wasn’t the first time they found themselves in such a situation, Ladybug had to remind herself, as she innocuously tucked her hands behind her back, and looked away. Still, she found it hard to breathe. So, she closed her eyes as well. Sometimes, they were locked inside a closet together, or a cage, or trapped in a giant bubble, doomed to float above the city forever, and, if not, they were always crashing into each other during battles, every time, redefining the whole concept of being too close for comfort, and she just wasn’t sure anymore if the universe was working with or against her.

Cat Noir didn’t love her…not like that, at least. It’d been that way for years now; still, it didn’t sting any less. He had had his eyes on this other girl for quite some time now, almost since the day she’d met him, but he never talked about her. Ladybug never asked him about her either, but she noticed it, in the very special way his face lit up altogether, the rare times he actually mentioned her—he was in love with that girl, the exact same way Ladybug was in love with him.

Sometimes, her thoughts wandered, and she found herself wondering what could’ve been, what _would’ve_ been, if that girl had never existed—if Cat Noir had never met her. Would they only stand a chance? 

Cat Noir was the man who put a thousand bombs inside her heart, and one exploded every time she heard his voice in the distance, every time he said her name, every time his neon green eyes bore into her own, undoing every tissue, every cell, every organelle in her body. His smile made her whole world crumble and the echo of his laughter would bring entire civilizations to the dirt. Sometimes, when they were alone together, her tongue turned inside her mouth, unable to form anything more than distorted sounds and confusing sentences. Her throat closed up, her cheeks darkened and swelled with blood, and her knees shook so much, she often found it difficult to walk. The suit helped, of course, but even Tikki’s powers had limits.

When she finally heard the man leave, Ladybug took a deep breath to steady herself, before she opened her eyes and looked up at Cat Noir again. God was it hard to be this close to the person you wanted the most, the person that _lived_ to set your soul on fire, and knowing that they will never, _ever_ , return your feelings.

Cat Noir was naturally charming; he liked to play, to tease, to flirt, but nothing he said Ladybug took seriously. When they were younger, she would often remind him of their superhero status, as she urged him to stop with the puns, to stop with the jokes, and focus on the situation at hand. She avoided his eyes, avoided his touch, and bit the inside of her cheeks to hold her laughs. Now, however, she found that good for nothing humor and flirtatious comment helped to cover up the awkwardness that often stuck to the space between them, and so made it a new habit to keep their banters short and sweet, light and witty, and not think too much. If she did, there will inevitably be a moment of inadvertent inattention of which her brain would mercilessly take advantage of to run free, and start processing all the images of Cat Noir it held on to, in the most private depths of Ladybug’s mind. In truth, making jokes when she was feeling nervous actually proved to be quite useful; she guessed that was just how she dealt with stuff, now, then. Ugh. Well, she knew at least she wouldn’t be much surprised if Cat Noir thought of her as a complete moron, after all the times she’d made an absolute fool of herself in front of him.

She almost threw up in shock, when she saw that Cat Noir wasn’t looking at the mad crowd behind them anymore, but was rather staring right at her. It took her another second to notice that he had both his hands on her waist, his fingers spread along her sides, and was just standing there, as if completely frozen. His breath quickened when he realized she had finally become aware of their position.

She tried to speak, but no word came out of her mouth.

“I…” he gasped, and she could feel him on her lips, his cold, minty breath _infecting_ her, _everywhere_.

She thought she might kiss him. I mean, he was right there, holding her, looking at her with those entrancing eyes of his, with his lips parted and his mouth practically hanging open. She could kiss him—she would only need to tilt her head up a bit and lift herself on her toes, before pressing her face against his. Suddenly, she caught herself wondering how it would taste like, how his tongue would feel against her teeth, or his skin, against hers. These kinds of thoughts weren’t foreign to her, but this time was the first time she was actually led to believe there was a possibility for them to come true.

She just wanted to kiss him. Was it really so bad? She just wanted to kiss him, and not because he needed to wake up from an akuma-induced trance. She wanted to kiss him and actually wanted to him to _remember_ kissing her, this time. She wanted to wrap her arms around his shoulders and drag him down toward her, kiss him hopelessly, until he forget who, where or even what he was, while Tianjian’s men were still shouting outside in the hallways. They wouldn’t hear any of it anyway.

She shook her head to shake away the thought and, when she glanced back at him again, only one question was floating around in her mind. _Why_ wasn’t she kissing him? She sighed— Because he didn’t love her. Because she knew that he didn’t want to kiss her; even less so did he want _her_ to kiss _him_.

Ladybug almost said something again, but her words stayed clenched to her chest, and she was never able to spit them out. Immediately, she remembered how things used to be between them, at the very beginning, when they were still new to the whole superhero lifestyle. Working alongside him proved to be somewhat difficult, especially the first couple of months, during which she recalled getting so very easily distracted by…by everything he did, really. Cat Noir seriously believed that she had a stutter at first, what with her inability to _speak_ and all.

A moment passed, and this time, it was Ladybug who froze when she realized that _he_ might actually kiss _her_. He was staring at her lips, breathing louder by the second, and the polka-dotted superhero couldn’t hold down a gasp. The sound seemed to have brought Cat Noir to reality though, his eyes, immediately snapping back to hers, as he turned his head away, and promptly stepped to the side.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself, as he pressed his palms against his closed eyes. “S-sorry, Ladybug, I…wasn’t thinking,” he apologized, shaking his head. “Sorry.”

Ladybug glanced away, cheeks pink, but stepped forward nonetheless, to reach for his hand. “I’d tell you never to think again in your life,” she almost said, _almost_ pushing him back against the opposite wall and kissing him, eternally closing the thousands of miles that still separated them, after years of alliance and camaraderie. Instead, she told him, “Come on, let’s get out of here,” and the moment was forgotten forever, as were all the other ones.

***

“Y-you… That’s not… You don’t understand,” Ladybug let out, sighing deeply, as she struggled to turn the thoughts she had in her head into actual sentences.

Damocles finally glanced away from his computer at that, and stared at the polka-dotted superhero and her partner, sitting across from him at his desk. The bright lights of his screen raged around his silhouette like an electric halo, and Cat Noir thought his face never looked more like that of an owl than at this exact moment.

The former principal of the François Dupont High School took in a deep breath, before he said, “Oh, no. I think I understand perfectly, Ladybug. You were reckless, as you often seem to be, lately,” he remarked, frowning slightly. “You thought you could take on Necro’s men, so you went over there, on your own, might I add, with no plans, no preparation, after I _specifically_ told you not to. You just showed up in the middle of this abandoned field like a goddamn Superman and thought you could defeat an entire army. You should be thankful that Cat Noir is always keeping an eye on you and always watching over your shoulder, or things could’ve gone a whole lot worse. You don’t want to listen to me? Fine. At least, listen to your partner.”

“Yes, _partner_. Not _father_ ,” Ladybug spat, scowling at Damocles. The latter didn’t even flinch. “I knew what I was doing!”

“Really?” the man with a head shaped like an owl’s snorted, completely unimpressed by the young bluenette. “Did you also know what you were doing when you got kidnapped by this Han Tianjian character and got your Miraculous snatched away from you?”

Ladybug opened her mouth to say something, but quickly realized that, whatever it was that she had in mind would only manage to make her look even more stupid, so she rather stayed quiet.

“Wait, this operation wasn’t a _total_ bust,” against all odds, it was Cat Noir who came to his partner’s rescue. “Let’s not forget that, if Ladybug hadn’t taken that risk today, we never would’ve found out that Necro had access to a Miraculous, possibly others, as well, and that he could have retrieved them from a whole different set of Miraculouses, for all we know.”

Damocles seemed to think about the points made by Cat Noir for a second, but was quick to dismiss him too afterwards. “We already had our speculations about that.”

“No,” Cat Noir countered, “we thought we were dealing with the Moth and Peacock Miraculouses again. Now, we know that the Necro has access to new Miraculouses.” He paused, and turned to Ladybug, who was already staring at him. He didn’t seem to notice. He reached for her left hand, where she wore Tianjian’s ring, and lifted it to show it to Damocles, innocently wrapping his fingers around hers. She swore her arm had just melted inside her costume. “We were even able to keep a souvenir,” he said. “The kwami inside this ring is a lion. His name is Jafari. Our Miracle box only includes kwamis that descend from Chinese Astrology. The two other Miracles boxes are _real_ , sir,” he concluded, and there was something shining in his eyes that Ladybug couldn’t quite place.

Damocles’ face rarely moved, but anyone could tell he was impressed by Cat Noir’s conjectures.

The latter caught the golden ring between his thumb and index and slid it off Ladybug’s finger, sending a thousand waves of electricity and fire all through her body. He then let go of her hand, and gently laid the Miraculous on the Owl’s desk. Jafari was still inside, refusing to come out, but they all knew it was only a question of time before the lion-shaped kwami would let them interrogate him.

“What a turntable,” Damocles whispered, unable to look away from the ring. “Now, we know what Necro is after, at least,” he realized, before he stared up at the two superheroes. “Well done, you two.”

“Thank you,” Ladybug said in a low, timid voice, as she and her partner stepped inside the elevator, and watched, as its doors closed on Damocles’ office. They were going up. “F-for having my back in there,” she continued. “I know you disapprove of everything that’s happened today, but…it was still nice to know that you’ll always be on my side, no matter what.”

Cat Noir’s face softened and he smiled at his partner. “Of course, Ladybug. Never doubt it.”

She blushed, glanced away, just when the elevator reached the labs, three floors above Damocles’ office, and opened its doors to let in a young woman with shiny black hair and giant red glasses. She was still wearing her gown, even though she had just finished her shift, and was about to get in, when she saw it was Ladybug and Cat Noir in the elevator. She stepped back, giving them her best smile, and waved shyly at the superhero duo.

“It’s okay, I’ll catch the next one,” she assured them despite their protestations, before the elevator doors closed again.

It was a long ride to the surface—the Owl’s whole operation was built deeply underground. “S-so…? Any plans for tonight?” Ladybug broke the silence again, simply unable to handle it. “Nope, sorry, scratch that. I don’t need to know that. I _shouldn’t_ know that, anyway.”

Cat Noir let out an amused snort, as he shook his head at his partner. “I’m going out with some friends,” he answered nonetheless. “We’ll probably get drunk on cheap beer and end the night screaming 'I love you' to one another.” The thought made him laugh. Ladybug smiled. “That much, I think it’s safe to share,” he added, with a wink. “What about you? What are you doing later?”

“Same,” she sighed, looking down at her feet. “Maybe without the drinking part.”

“What about that guy you’ve been seeing?”

Ladybug seemed confused all of a sudden, as she glanced back at her partner. “What guy?”

Now, it was Cat Noir’s turn to be confused. “Uh, I don’t know… I only know him as ‘the guy’…” he tried to explain as best as he could, given the circumstances. “You told me about him like a month ago…?”

“Oh!” _He meant Luka_ , she guessed immediately. “Right. That guy. Uh, good, I guess. We’re uh… It’s fine.”

“Wow, sounds like he just might be the one,” Cat Noir teased her, but she only pursed her lips at him, a playful look in her eyes.

“Whatever, mister,” she drawled. “What about you, then? And that girl? Still pining after her? ...whatever happened between you two?”

At that, Cat Noir’s smile dropped. Immediately, Ladybug realized she might have made a mistake. She was about to apologize for it, when her partner interrupted her. “We’re still friends. We see each other every other day. But…she’s with someone else, now.”

“Oh. Bummer.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you ever…you know? Told her? H-how you felt?” she wondered, glancing away.

“Nope.”

“Do you think you’ll ever—”

“Nope.” He sighed.

At this point, he thought, the best that could happen is that their whole dynamic will be thrown off, and Marinette would feel just a bit too uncomfortable around him, something he really, really didn’t want to happen, and at worst, Marinette and he would just stop talking. He really did not want that either.

“Cool, cool… Yeah. The suffer-in-silence type,” Ladybug prattled, eyeing the little elevator screen that counted the levels they passed by. “I totally get that, yeah.” She took a deep breath. “Well, whatever happens, I’m rooting for you. You never know. Maybe one day she’ll wake up and change her mind.”

Cat Noir chuckled at that. “Maybe. And, I’m rooting for you, too, Ladybug.”

The latter grinned back at him, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I know.”


	2. Since I Don't Have You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was always a sucker for a jealous Adrien >:D

The bar was just starting to fill up when Adrien walked in. He didn’t see his friends at first and thought he was early, but it wasn’t too long before he heard someone calling his name from the opposite side of the room. As he turned around towards where he’d heard the voice, he spotted the table where Nino, Alya, and Marinette were already sitting. The latter was smiling widely as she waved him over, and he could feel the way his heart immediately began to race as he made his way to them.

“I saved you a seat!” the bluenette exclaimed proudly, gesturing to the chair next to her, where she laid her left leg. “Come on,” she said, lifting her thigh only slightly—just enough for Adrien to sit down—before she rested it back on him.

If Marinette didn’t notice the way his jaw clenched and the muscles in his neck and shoulders tensed, Nino didn’t miss it, but only snickered at his best friend’s misery, shoving the rim of his stubby beer into his mouth to finish it. He was already at his third bottle, while Alya was sipping on a nice glass of pinot noir. Marinette had only ordered a glass of ice water, which she didn’t yet appear to have touched.

“Don’t feel like drinking tonight?” he asked her. The music was even louder where they were sitting, the speakers on the walls blasting the most recent hip-hop hits into their ears. He had to repeat himself a couple times before Marinette could hear him properly.

“No, I came in here way early to help Luka with the setup,” she explained. She then gestured to her water and took the first sip. “The night is still young, though. I thought about sobering up a bit—don’t want to miss on all the fun!” She was almost screaming into his ear as she spoke, leaning toward him in a way that brought the two of them even closer together. Adrien could smell her perfume from where he was sitting, as well as the fresh smell of sugary mojitos still lingering on her breath.

“You two sure are spending lots of time together, lately,” Alya remarked, a knowing look on her face, as she played with the stem of her wine glass. “What are you gonna say when your parents start asking how long ‘till the wedding?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve only been banging the dude for like a month,” Marinette tried to sound casual and laugh it off, but Adrien noticed the way her leg twitched when Alya mentioned the possibility of her getting married to Luka. Or was he the one who stilled altogether?

“Uh, I’m gonna go to the bar,” he announced, immediately changing the subject. “Can I get you guys anything?” he asked, swiftly sliding under Marinette’s thigh to stand up, very careful not to touch it. The girls declined politely, while Nino asked for another beer, to Alya’s dismay. Adrien smiled at his friends, amused by the couple’s old antics.

As he made his way to the bar, Adrien caught a glimpse of the stage at the other side of the room. There were one electric guitar and bass—respectively Luka’s and Juleka’s—placed at the center of the platform, towered by Ivan’s big set of drums, and then, Rose’s mic, right under the spotlight. The latter also played bass sometimes, and so, brought along her custom pink instrument. Adrien was told that tonight was probably the most important gig of their career, because they will be performing in front of some well-renown record producer from London, whose name the young model completely blanked on. From what he knew, Kitty Section was tired of working with Bob Ross’ label and hoping to get a new deal with another studio, before they quit.

Over the years, Kitty Section’s popularity had well risen in the public’s eye and was definitely able to earn all the credit, credibility, and success they were owed when they started. Today, Luka and his band couldn’t be more different from the four high schoolers that posted weekly video covers of popular songs on YouTube, for only half the number of views their talent truly deserved. People actually paid to see them now, and they even had their very own merchandise. Just three months ago, Kitty Section was returning from a four-week-long tour in Southern France, which hashtag had been trending on Instagram for about six weeks after that.

Their music was alright, Adrien supposed, and their on-stage presence was worth the hype, he saw no use in denying it, but, well…it’s just that… Adrien was sure he’d be able to appreciate them all the same from a distance. Don’t get him wrong, he was very proud of everything his friends were able to accomplish, but like, he didn’t mind being proud of them in another bar, preferably a quieter one, where Alya, Nino, Marinette and him would just learn about their achievements on Facebook, just like everyone else. Lately, he felt as if every time he was going out with Marinette and the others, Luka was nearby, be it actually sitting and hanging out with them, or just casually lurking in the background. I mean, it’s not like they all saw each other as much as they used to when they were in high school—they all had their own lives, now, jobs and responsibilities—so let’s just say that Adrien would kind of appreciate these moments he always looked forward to even more, if the guy who had managed to get the girl of his dreams wasn’t there every damn time.

The young model let out a frustrated grunt, as he finally made it past the crowd and to the bar.

Marinette and Luka had been seeing each other for a little over than a month now, even though they had known each other for years before that. Although Adrien didn’t really know the details of how it all went down—not that he would ever ask for them anyway—he just knew that he hated it.

Marinette had dated many guys over the years—well, not that many really, but Adrien tended to always dramatize everything when it came to her—none of which really fit into their little group, and who she always ended up dumping pretty fast after Alya or Nino told her they didn’t really ‘synched’ with them. However, as hard as it was for him to admit it, Luka was not like any of her other exes. Everyone liked Luka. Luka was fucking perfect. H-he…he was conventionally handsome, he was nice, he actually cared about Marinette, he was funny…and he had always kind of been part of their group. When Marinette and he started dating, no one had anything to say about it, which was so rare and so out of character for Alya and Nino, it actually managed to worry Adrien.

They were all older now, after all. Like him, Marinette will be turning twenty-five this year. Also, Alya and Nino had been married and living together for a little more than six months already, and Kim Lê Chiến just posted pictures of his three-year-old’s birthday party last weekend on his Facebook. Little to say, the friends he met in high school were all growing up and doing grown-up stuff now, like taking loans to buy apartments closer to their jobs and getting _health insurance_. I mean, Marinette and Luka seemed steady enough today. What if they remain that way for the couple years to come? And after that, what is it that will actually stop Luka from getting to his knee and proposing? Adrien couldn’t come up with a single reason why Marinette would say no, anyway. It made him sick just to think about it.

When he got back to where they were sitting, his drink and Nino’s in hand, Marinette had left her water on the table and was nowhere to be seen. As he shot his friends an inquiring look, Alya just told him that the bluenette had gone to find Luka backstage.

“What does she even see in him?” Adrien grumbled to himself, completely sure that the music would do an excellent job covering it all up.

He had had to miscalculate his move, however, because Alya immediately straightened up in her seat, smirking at him maliciously, as her deep brown eyes lit up with liveliness and mischief. “Why do you care, Adrien? I thought you were very _happy_ for them?” she asked, unable to hold down a giggle. “You even said that Luka was a super-duper great guy, who treated her right, after you promised me _three times_ that you couldn’t possibly be jealous of him, because you were _totally_ over Marinette,” she pursued, pursing her lips at her husband’s best friend, while Nino was trying—in vain—to bite down a guffaw. “Your words, not mine.”

Adrien darted his eyes on the crowd around them and took a full sip of his drink, before he said, “Oh, fuck off, you know I didn’t mean any of that crap.”

Alya and Nino laughed again at that, leaving their friend feeling a bit ill at ease. “Oh, don’t be mad at us, Adrikins,” Nino tittered, never tired of this sort of running joke their group had of constantly bringing up the most embarrassing nicknames Adrien has ever had to endure, “We just like to mess with you.”

“Why’d you even tell her that I liked Marinette in the first place?” the young model retorted, frowning, gulping down another big sip of his rather expensive whiskey. It was meant to be a sipping whiskey—Adrien learned it the hard way.

Nino held his hands up in plea. “Hey, spouse privileges,” he immediately defended himself. “I already told you not to trust me to keep your secrets, anymore.”

Adrien rolled his eyes at his best friend. “Whatever. Also, fuck you.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Alya replied, wrapping an arm around her husband’s shoulders and placing a small kiss on his lips. “But, you know, in all seriousness, you really should like talk to her or something.”

“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, but still sounded unconvinced.

“Hey, you wanna know why Marinette and Luka are going out?” Alya insisted. “It’s because _he_ actually asked her out.” Adrien pouted at the comment, even though he knew he had to give her right. “Well, the fact that he’s hot definitely helped his case, too,” she jokingly added.

“He’s not _that_ hot,” Adrien countered, seeming almost offended by Alya’s remark.

The latter’s smile only widened. “I mean, it could also be his _huge_ pe…er, _personality_.”

“Oh, yeah, he totally strikes me as that,” Nino affirmed, nodding furiously. “The guy definitely exhibits some huge _personality_ energy. I’m really not sure if I should feel happy or sad for Marinette, right now.”

“It’s a blessing and a curse, babe,” Alya said, winking at her husband. “A blessing and a curse…”

“You guys are the worst,” Adrien snorted.

***

When Marinette didn’t come back, even after the concert started, Adrien decided to go against Alya and Nino’s best advice and look for her. I mean, she couldn’t have left, he reasoned. He knew for a fact that Luka had been her ride here, and, besides, it wasn’t really a habit of hers to take off without saying goodbye. When he didn’t find her by the stage, dancing around with all the other girls, he thought to try his luck backstage. She wasn’t there either.

Immediately, half of him hoped something bad had happened between her and Luka, and that they had somehow managed to break up sometime during these past forty minutes, all the while his other half was just yelling at him for even entertaining the idea of these kinds of thoughts, especially when they inevitably involved the mishap of one of his dear friends. But, he couldn’t help it, for the life of him. He wondered for a second if that made him a bad person. Probably, if he was being honest.

“There you are!” he blurted out, simply unable to hold it in, when he finally spotted Marinette through the windowpane, standing right outside the bar corner, a cigarette and her phone in hand, as she quietly scrolled through her Instagram feed, while her boyfriend was inside, on stage, trying to impress the one person that could or not change his band’s entire career path. “Hey, I was looking for you,” Adrien said, after he stepped outside as well, and made his way towards her. Instantly, she looked up at him and smiled, as she put away her phone. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you inside?”

“Oh, you know, I’ve heard these songs like a thousand times already,” she told him. “Besides, I’m not really in the mood to fight all of Luka’s groupies just to have a piece of him. Not that I need to, anyway, but…you know how fans can get.”

“Yeah, it’s true that they can get a little…uh, overbearing, sometimes,” he agreed. She chuckled. He felt proud, making her laugh, even if it only lasted a couple seconds, after which the apparent grim look that shaded her face before returned. “You seem upset,” he remarked.

“Ha. What sold me out?”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, suddenly concerned.

Marinette didn’t answer right away; instead, she curled her lips around her cigarette filter and sucked in the smoke, her cheeks, robotically following the movement, as she swallowed the sweet toxins and let the nicotine fill up her lungs.

Adrien didn’t really smoke—he didn’t smoke as much as Alya (even though she had recently quit) or Marinette, at least—but he didn’t mind it. Smoking was common in France, even more so in the capital, he didn’t think he had ever met someone that couldn’t physically stand it anyway. He knew his father smoked too, a lot; but it wasn’t like he actively tried to hide it or anything. The latter’s assistant Natalie would go for a _café-clope_ at least twice a day, or, like Adrien liked to call it, coffee and cancer. He wasn’t sure exactly when Marinette had started to smoke—it was probably around the end of their sophomore year in high school—but he knew that she needed that 15-minute cigarette break before lunch every day.

“I thought you quit,” he thought to mention. He then turned around and laid his back against the wall, shoving his hands down his pockets, as he looked up to the sky.

It was covered with dark clouds, with not a single star to be seen, but it didn’t seem like it was going to rain anytime soon. Marinette did the same, after she gazed at her half-smoked cigarette for a while and tossed it at the ground, before she crushed it under her shoe to put it out.

With a little hindsight, Marinette’s sudden disappearance actually made lots of sense, now; she probably hadn’t wanted Alya to find her, and find out she had just bought a full pack of Winston Blue from the local shop right down the street.

“Do you not want to tell me what happened?” he persisted again. “I mean, I don’t want to pry or anything like that, but…I’m also kind of bored, so any form of distraction is welcomed,” he said, grinning, as he tried to play down the true worry that he felt, seeing her like this, with dark, tired eyes and her smile just…missing.

Marinette giggled, shaking her head, before she punched his arm, so lightly he barely even felt it. “It’s very stupid,” she let him know, a little more serious. “It’s not even worth talking about. Sometimes, I just get mad about really stupid stuff.”

“Alright,” Adrien sighed. “Keep your secrets.” He paused. “What about the rest of your day, then? The part that didn’t have to do with…whatever you’re feeling right now,” he added, cautiously. “How’d that go?”

“It was fine, I guess. I still get paid to make coffee and oversee mail deliveries, which kinda sucks, because _that_ has nothing to do with fashion, but…my supervisor actually called me by my name today, so… I think you can count that as a victory.”

“Oh, wow… That’s…um, something. It’s definitely progress.”

Right after high school, Marinette had enrolled in a three-years-long undergraduate program at ESMOD Paris to study Fashion Design and Creation and had received a high distinction degree. She worked for Adrien’s father’s company for a year and a half after that as a fashion stylist—which basically entailed in her having to wake up every day at ungodly hours of the morning to supervise photoshoots, styling arrogant models, and constantly schmoozing with all kinds of Fashion PRs, editorial prints or advertising companies on the phone, and talking them into putting all new _Gabriel_ creations on display all around the city and on the front cover of fashion magazines.

She was doing such a good job, too, that, when the news of her intentions to quit _Gabriel_ made its way to Natalie’s ears, the latter offered Marinette raises beyond the young fashion enthusiast’s wildest dreams. She still refused. When Adrien asked why she did such a thing, her only reply was that that job left her somewhat ‘creatively bored’ and that she needed something more challenging.

“Yeah… Well, there’s this other thing, too, but like…” she said, but then stopped, and sighed, without continuing. Adrien lifted an inquisitive eyebrow in her direction, quietly encouraging her to keep going. She let out a frustrated groan, before she shifted her position, pressing her side against the wall, to look at him properly. He mimicked her so they would be facing each other. “Okay,” she started one more time, “so, you know they let me attend business meetings, sometimes, yeah?” He nodded, not sure exactly where she was going with that. “Well, today, the company was receiving some investor from Shanghai, and my supervisor made it _very_ clear that the top bosses wanted his money…”

After quitting _Gabriel_ , Marinette worked for the women’s magazine _Fair_ as a blogger, but dropped it after maybe six months of writing what she qualified as extremely misogynistic and sexist articles, to go back to school.

ESMOD Paris was very excited to take her back, and she managed to get a master’s degree in Fashion Business, before she decided to specialize in something very new called Fashion Contour.

“They’re all in the room, already, right? And like, all the offices on that floor are made of glass, so, as I follow my mentor in the hallway, towards where the meeting is supposed to take place… Well, let’s just say that we can sense, in a way, that…they’re not exactly having the best of times…” she pursued, Adrien still listening very carefully.

Today, Marinette had been an intern at _Edna Fashion Intel®_ for about four months already, desperately trying to make it as a garment technologist—or, as Natalie called them, the very gods of the Fashion Industry—whose ideas people actually took into consideration. When Adrien let Marinette know that he had never heard of that job before, she explained that a garment technologist’s work consisted on developing and/or designing brand new materials by constantly trying out new and different combinations of yarns, textiles, and fibers—in short, everything Marinette had already been doing ever since she was a teenager, and she liked to experiment with all kinds of fabrics, all alone, in her little attic of a room, but now with a higher scale impact.

“So we walk in, and we immediately know what’s going on: there was some kind of a mix-up, and the investor from Shanghai thought _we_ would be providing a translator.”

“Fuck,” Adrien cursed under his breath, eyes round with dread, as he suddenly had an idea on what she was gonna say next.

“Yeah, fuck is right,” Marinette was quick to validate his apprehension. “The second the investor saw me, he started talking to me in Mandarin, a-and…I had _literally_ no fucking clue what he was saying! It was _so_ embarrassing…” she whined, and Adrien couldn’t hold down a laugh. “Hey! Stop that!” she exclaimed, but there was no way one could actually take her seriously with the very obvious way she was biting her lips to keep herself from cracking up. “It’s not _funny_! Stop it!”

“I know, I know… I’m sorry…” the young model managed to blurt out between laughs, but Marinette could see that his apology was only half-hearted. “You’re right,” he said, as he straightened up to try and steady himself, even though the bluenette could see behind the smile that lit up his beautiful green eyes the actual flood of giggles that he was trying to suppress. “It is _not_ funny.”

“Then, stop. Laughing. You fucktard!” she let out, trying, in vain, to drown her own laughter, and that was _it_ for Adrien, who just straight-up _lost it_. “It’s good that you, at least, can laugh at my _misery_ ,” she said, after some time. She was smirking at him, a mischievous light shining in her deep blue eyes.

Although Adrien couldn’t possibly know any of it, Marinette felt a little troubled after she realized how it easy it had become for her to come up with more and more new lies to be able to share her stories with her friends without having to hint on anything that might be considered Ladybug-related. Indeed, it wasn’t the fact that a Chinese investor her company was interested in—in truth, that guy didn’t even exist—had started talking to her in Mandarin in front of her colleagues and superiors that embarrassed her, but rather the fact that Han Tianjian had been right to assume she wouldn’t be able to understand a single word he was exchanging with his men, when he captured her. Ugh. If only she could’ve gone back in time and gone back there again, she would’ve done things completely differently. Well, for one, she would’ve have let Tianjian touch her Miraculous. She still didn’t know what he meant when he ordered Mrs. Mendeleiev to ‘trick’ her earrings, and, even though she still was too proud to admit it, it still managed to rub her up the wrong way.

Then, she stilled, as one completely wild and crazy, completely out-of-this-world idea flashed behind her eyelids, coloring the world around her with green and turquoise.

“Hey, where’d you go?” Adrien asked, breaking her out of her reverie.

As she looked up at him, she realized that, somehow, despite everything, his being here, and listening to her, his laughing at her folly, had weirdly managed to cheer her up. “I like talking to you,” she confessed, taking him off guard, all of a sudden. “It makes me feel good. You’re a really good friend,” she said, her last word echoing in his brain with the impact of an electric drill, before she lifted herself on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.

Her lips burned as they touched him and he could feel his face turning red entirely, and in less than a second. He tried to say something, but the words were firmly hooked to his throat, and there was no way he could get them out without drawing blood.

Was it really what it had come to? One compliment and a little kiss on the cheek was enough to make that much of a mess out of him? _Come on_.

“Come on, let’s go back inside,” she suggested, gently tugging at his jacket sleeve. “Alya and Nino are probably wondering where the Hell we went.”

When Adrien and Marinette returned to their table, Alya and Nino were, for the record, very much _not_ wondering where their two friends had gone—Adrien was pretty sure they didn’t even notice they were missing in the first place.

Kitty Section was still on stage, the screaming and screeching of the crowd of fans around them almost as loud as their music. After a little while, Rose stopped to sing and stepped aside, letting Luka and his guitar get behind the mic. She joined Juleka’s side and picked up her own bass, to pass over her shoulders.

“The next song we’re gonna perform,” Luka spoke softly into the mic, causing his fans to shout even louder, “is not featured in our album, nor has it yet been released to the public. But I wanted to sing it nonetheless, tonight, exclusively, for all of you who are here.” He paused, staring down at his guitar to tune it slightly.

When he looked back up at the crowd, his eyes immediately found Marinette’s, who was sitting at the complete opposite side of the bar, and he smiled at her. No one noticed it, though, because of how many people there were tonight, except for her, and, well, Adrien, who didn’t miss the way she blushed and smiled back at the guitarist.

“I would like to dedicate this song to a person who has been in my life for a really long time, always there, always supporting me… This person has been my rock, my strength, and the reason to make me smile at the end of a bad day. I thought what a better way to show my gratitude than to write them a song, to thank them, for being such an important part of my story,” he said. “I hope you’ll like it.”

As he started to sing, Alya turned around in her seat, almost savagely, to face Marinette. “How are you guys not Instagram official, already?”

The bluenette only shrugged, taking a large sip of her formerly abandoned glass of water. “Who said the song is about me?”

Alya glared at her best friend. “Oh, come on. Are you kidding? _Of course_ , the song is about you.”

“Is it, though?” Marinette replied, always so charmingly mysterious. “You seem awfully sure.”

“ _Yes_. And I _am_.”

Adrien stopped listening to his friends after that, even though he still got some pieces of conversation here and there, but which didn’t make any sense, even when put together.

He managed to finish his third glass of whiskey before one o’clock, and, as he listened to Luka’s song, the realization that he couldn’t, ever, compete with him, really started to dawn on him, deeply anchoring itself between the two halves of his brain, convincing him that he would never be enough for Marinette. I mean, when you had a guy like Luka completely at your feet…just what use did you have with someone like Adrien?

“Hey, guys!” a man’s voice Adrien knew only too well spoke behind him, and, a couple seconds later, Luka Couffaine— _think of the Devil_ —was making his way to his and his friends’ table, casually squeezing himself between him and Marinette to give the latter a kiss.

“Ew, no!” she exclaimed, laughing, drawing her boyfriend’s face away from hers, to Adrien’s satisfaction. “You’re all sweaty! I don’t want all that on me!”

Luka’s smile only widened, as he turned toward the rest of the group. “How’d you like the concert? Did you enjoy yourselves?”

“It was awesome, dude,” Nino let him know, very enthusiastically. “You guys nailed it.”

“Yeah,” Alya added in confirmation. “You’re all really talented. It was great. And the venue is great, too.”

Luka nodded. “I always let Rose handle these kinds of stuff. She really knows what she’s doing. She knows more than Bob Ross’ team, at least,” he said. He never missed an opportunity to talk up his other band members, and it showed, in the way he spoke of them, just how much he loved and respected them. “You ready to go?” he asked Marinette.

The latter seemed surprised. “Already? Don’t you have to talk to that British producer of yours?”

The blue-haired man shook his head. “He said he’d call us. He seemed pretty excited. I think we made a good impression.”

“Of course, you did!” the bluenette assured him, raising a hand to his face to brush his eyebrows out of his eyes. “You were remarkable. He’d be a proper tit if he didn’t let you sign with him.”

Luka chuckled, a bit amused by Marinette’s remark. “Do you wanna stay over at my place, tonight?”

Adrien cursed himself under his breath and moved his chair away from the couple. Luka didn’t make anything of it though and just adjusted his position next to Marinette.

“Do you mind if we go to mine?” she wondered. “I-I…kinda need to talk to you about something. It’s pretty important.”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah, no, s-sure! N-no problem!” Luka stuttered out, suddenly coy, as he straightened up at once. “Uh, I…I’ll go get changed. M-meet…meet me backstage in ten?”

“You got it.”

“What was all that about?” Alya immediately wanted to know. “It looked like you just crushed the poor bastard’s favorite guitar. What’s that, that’s so important you wanna tell him?”

“Well, you know, there’s a reason I didn’t say it in front of you guys, now, isn’t there?” Marinette replied, cheeky. “It’s a secret.”

“Is that Morse for you’re finally gonna take your relationship to the next level?”

Marinette pouted. “You know, you need to relax. You always get so worked up whenever I’m with Luka. Seriously, I’ve only been seeing him for a little over than a month. I told you. I mean, we’re using condoms, for God’s sake. There. Is. No. Relationship,” she tried to explain once again, slower this time, and hoping Alya will ultimately maybe get it.

“Does _he_ know that?”

The bluenette sighed, got up, and gathered her things to go. “Believe me, he does,” she asserted before she kissed them all goodbye and went to join her boyfriend backstage.

***

“Alright, what’s up? You haven’t said anything the entire ride here,” Luka said, as he took off his shoes by Marinette’s door, and watched, as the latter made her way to the living room. Tikki, knowing then it was only her holder and Luka in the apartment, decided it was safe for her to come out of hiding.

The lead guitarist of Kitty Section followed after his friend, his concern rising by second, but she still didn’t speak. Instead, she got to her knees and pushed the carpet aside. She used one of her heels to move a loose floorboard, then reached inside the hole for her Miracle box. It had changed its form when Master Fu had given it to her, and was now rounder and redder, with black polka dots all over it. Confusion wafted on Luka’s face, as Marinette got to her feet and opened the box, taking out the Miraculous of the Snake.

“Has Hawk Moth returned?” he asked, a wary look on his face, but Marinette only shook her head.

“No, but there’s someone else, and I think they want mine and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses as well,” she told him. “I messed up, earlier today,” she confessed. “I got captured. It only made me realize how much we’ve underestimated our new enemy. They’re way smarter than Hawk Moth, that’s for sure, and that only makes them all the more dangerous.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Marinette closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, before she opened them again, and presented Luka with the Miraculous of the Snake. “Luka Couffaine, here is the Miraculous of the Snake, which grants the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good. Your Miraculous is probably one of the most powerful in this box,” she added. “I want you to join mine and Cat Noir’s team, _permanently_.”

Luka’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Oh, wow. Really?”

“I know you’re already very busy as it is, but you’re the only one who has proven himself worthy of the Miraculous of the Snake. Besides, I trust you. You’re maybe the only person in this timeline who knows that I’m Ladybug,” she disclosed. He didn’t ask what she meant by that. “Hawk Moth was child’s play when compared to what Necro seems capable of. The latter has access to new Miraculouses. Miraculouses I’ve never even heard of, before. Possibly more than two. I don’t think we even stand a chance against him without you. So? What do you say?”

“Is that the thing that you wanted to tell me?”

Marinette blinked, slightly perplexed. “Uh, yeah… Obviously.”

Luka exhaled, seeming somewhat relieved. “Yes, of course, Marinette, I accept. It’s really a no-brainer. You just tell me what to do.”

“Just show up for patrol tomorrow night, for starter,” she replied, smirking. “We usually start our rounds at eleven o’clock à la Place de la Concorde.”

“Done,” he agreed, putting on his Ouroboros bracelet, and grinning, as Sass appeared before him. “Hey, buddy. How’ve you been?”


	3. Cornerstone

“So, uh… yeah, tell me. How, exactly, did the great Ladybug and Cat Noir end up working for freaking _Hervé_ Damocles?” Viperion wondered aloud, snickering, as he brought his legs toward his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Ladybug gave him a pout. “No, I mean, really, all jokes aside. We’re talking about Principal Damocles, right? The same guy who was literally _petrified_ about the idea of standing up to fourteen-year-old Chloe Bourgeois? Remember _that_ whole circus? What in the Hell happened?”

“Well, first of all, we work _with_ him, not _for_ him,” the bluenette rectified, falsely outraged. Viperion only chuckled. “And you make it sound like we actually get paid to do all that superhero-ing business.”

“You don’t?”

“Ha. I _wish_.”

The pair were sitting on top of the _Fnac_ des Champs-Elysées, and looking down at the crowded streets of Paris, as they waited for Cat Noir to show up. On their left, they could see the Ferris wheel of the Tuileries Gardens, shining brightly in the horizon, standing tall between the national gallery du Jeu de Paume and l’Orangerie. A little further away, the Obelisk de la Place de la Concorde rose before them, challenging l’Arc de Triomphe, at the very other end of the street, to a staring contest. Its sharp tip pointed right at the sky, where hanged a giant silvery moon, surrounded by stars Ladybug hadn’t been able to see last night. If she paid enough attention, the latter could also hear the Seine’s current, flowing, particularly strongly tonight, across the capital, cutting the city in half.

“I never get tired of this,” she sighed. “Sitting here, on the top of the buildings, just…taking in the view... I don’t think I could ever give that up.”

“Don’t get all romantic on me, dove,” Viperion teased, smirking knowingly at his friend. He let himself relax a bit and laid his back against the chimney behind him.

“ _Please_ , don’t flatter yourself. Besides, if anything, _you_ ’re the romantic one out of the two of us, Mr. I-Wrote-You-A-Song-Cause-You’re-So-Special-To-Me,” Ladybug retorted, rolling her eyes at her newest partner.

The latter lifted an eyebrow at her, amused by her comeback. “Well, it’s true. You _are_ special to me,” he affirmed. “I think you might just be my best friend.” He paused, thought about something for a second, before he carried on, “Plus, the song is no way near romantic. It’s more like a…a friendship song, really.”

“Yeah, well, good luck explaining _that_ to Alya.”

“She means well,” Viperion said, his eyes, suddenly drawn to the skyline. Ladybug was right; the view was breathtaking.

“I know she does,” the superheroine replied, shaking her head. “She wants me to be happy, but like…she doesn’t really get the fact that you don’t need to be in love or in a relationship to be happy.”

Viperion hummed in agreement. Ladybug didn’t add anything after that. “You never answered, though,” he pointed out, after a moment of silence. “How did you end up working with Damocles?”

“Oh, right… Uh, r-remember that whole Dark Owl debacle a few years back?”

“Um, yeah. I mean, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting that anytime soon,” he joked. “ _Ooh, ooh_!”

Ladybug laughed softly, before she gently slapped his arm, as she pursed her lips at him. “You’re terrible. _Anyway_ … After the attack, Damocles actually started to work with charities all over the city to help out as many people as he could. Living that superhero life to the best of his capacities, surely.”

Viperion seemed somewhat taken aback by the information. “Woah, really? I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah,” Ladybug nodded. “He later founded the Owl Fund, in the name of which he organized all sorts of fund-raising events, and where all money raised would be redistributed to smaller charities. Yeah, it was pretty great, although the main attraction of these events were Cat Noir and I.”

“It’s still pretty impressive. Last I heard, he quit his position at Dupont. Is that what he’s been doing now?”

“That, and well, he also supervises the Owl’s H.Q., which is basically code for the little secret labs that he has scattered in the city’s undergrounds. He has a whole team of physicists and engineers working day and night to understand the functionalities of our powers, kwamis, and even suits. I gave him the _Miraculous Scrolls of Mystical Transformation_ —uh, basically the rule-book of the Miraculouses—so, that’s what he’s been working on right now. Trying to crack the code and give us access to more power, as well as more control over our powers.” Viperion shot her an uncertain look. “What? I’m the Guardian, now. And I’m trying to be more progressive. More…inclusive. Damocles genuinely wants to make the world a better place. I really do believe that, at least. He may have been a shitty principal, but the guy knows what he’s doing. We were able to prevent lots of disasters from happening, thanks to him. Besides, I can’t even _read_ the damn thing. I tried, but Master Fu went for his amnesia trip before he could teach me anything. And there’s no way I’m leaving my friends and family to go spent a hundred years in a cold humid cave somewhere in the Tibetan mountains.” She paused, and smiled, like she just thought of something funny. “He’s basically the Nick Fury Paris deserved but didn’t know it needed. Besides, there _are_ laws, and, as crazy and annoying as it seems, I am not above them. Even if the people seem to love us, the government is not really too keen on the idea of having two people with superpowers and superhuman abilities just…you know, running around the city, completely free and unmonitored. In the end, it was either working with Damocles, or working with Mayor Bourgeois.”

“Right. There’s not really a decision to be made, there. And…he doesn’t know who you are?”

Ladybug shook her head. “Nope. No one does. Only you. And that’s just because you were there to rewind time when that Sentimonster was actually able to put its hands on my earrings.”

“Yup. What a day that was… So, you’re planning on keeping your identity a secret forever, then?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just wait for that post-credit scene where Mysterio’s gonna reveal to the world who I really am, underneath the mask…”

Viperion chortled. “Okay, you need to tone down the Marvel references.”

Ladybug grinned. “Nah, I don’t think I’m gonna do that…”

“You’re a lost cause.”

The polka-dotted superhero was about to say something, when she was cut off by the silhouette of Cat Noir closing up in the distance. “Hey, kitten,” she greeted him, as he landed in front of Viperion and her. She got to her feet as she spoke, and held out a hand to the Snake Miraculous holder to help him up as well. “Nice of you drop in.”

“Hi…” Cat Noir replied, a bit absentmindedly, before the realization of Viperion’s presence actually hit him. “V-Viperion? Is…is something wrong, Ladybug?” he was quick to ask. “Did Necro strike again?”

“Uh, n-no, no, nothing like that,” his partner assured him. “I don’t think, at least.”

“Then, why… Uh, I’m sorry,” Cat Noir apologized. “I don’t…I don’t mean to be rude, or anything, I just…”

“No worries,” Viperion promised. “I can understand your concern.”

“Well, after what happened yesterday with Tianjian and all, I was thinking of Viperion joining our team,” Ladybug explained, and immediately, Viperion could see how different she was from last night, suddenly way less confident than when she was asking him to accept the Snake Miraculous as Marinette. “I know the whole thing was on me… But, you know like me that the Snake is one of the most powerful Miraculouses we have. It would really be a shame if we didn’t take advantage of it. I-if Viperion has complete access to his Miraculous, than he wouldn’t need me as a middle-man before coming to help us. We could save ourselves crucial minutes, this way. Besides, he has already proven himself to be worthy of the Snake Miraculous many times, a-and he’s up for it. W-hat…what do you t-think?”

Viperion couldn’t help a smile, as he watched his friend crumble into a blushing, stuttering mess in front of Cat Noir. She was the Guardian, after all; Fu picked _her_ to be his successor. This meant that the very decision of how to dispose of the Miraculouses was hers, and was not to be disputed. Yet, she still tried to justify her choice to Cat Noir, and that was only because she felt _that_ much more insecure when she was around him.

“Oh, uh…y-yeah,” the holder of the Black Cat managed to choke out, as he nervously darted his eyes away from the pair, and played with his baton. His cat ears were flat against his head and he was chewing on his bottom lip. “Yeah, okay. I get it. S-sure. It’s…uh, it’s smart.”

“I’m sorry. I know I should’ve talked to you… You know, b-before I gave…” she started to ramble again, but her partner interrupted her quickly, as he lifted a hand to stop her, before he laid it on her shoulder, and squeezed nicely.

Ladybug’s cheeks filled up with red immediately, almost completely blending with her mask then and there. Viperion tried to think back to a time where Luka was able to make Marinette blush like that; in vain. Little to say, he was very impressed by what seemed to be Cat Noir’s innate talent—even though the latter didn’t appear to notice any of it. What a wanker. Or, maybe he did notice, in which case, he was still very much a wanker.

“Ladybug, _you_ ’re the Guardian. The choice is yours, by definition,” he said, as carefully as possible. “You’re a clever girl, and I trust you and will stand behind every single decision you take. Please, don’t apologize.”

_Wanker_ , Viperion thought, biting down a grin. If he were ever to spit out a line like that, Marinette would’ve probably never let it slide, and made fun of him ‘till morning. He clicked his tongue at the pair and pushed away his thoughts, as he hitched his harp to his belt to ready himself. “Shall we?”

Ladybug smirked and nodded, and in turn, unhooked her yo-yo from her waist, springing it somewhere into the old and beautiful Parisian landscape.

***

It was around 9 o’clock in the morning, when Adrien showed up à la Gare du Nord, a nice bouquet of yellow roses in hands, to wait patiently for his brother Felix’s train to arrive.

Because there weren’t that many people around them, Plagg felt safe to come out of hiding, and now laid lazily on his holder’s head, very comfortably rested between the latter’s smoothly combed locks. His little cat's tail brushed annoyingly against the young man’s forehead, tickling his nostrils each time it managed to reach the tip of his nose, but Adrien was too deep in thought to even notice.

_Of all the other Miraculouses in that damn box…just, why_ him _?_

At this point, Adrien was completely certain that the universe merely saw his entire existence as a giant joke; the model had just about a million girls at his feet, yet he still couldn’t get the one he loved. And just when he thought that irony couldn’t get more dismal than that, he now had not only to endure the presence of the guy who had been able to sweep her away from him every single time he went out with his friends, but also to _tolerate_ him during patrols.

“Plagg? Plagg, what’s wrong with me?”

“How much time do we have?”

“What?”

“Well, I don’t think I would be able to summarize all that’s wrong within just a few words… I may be a god, but even _I_ find it quite impossible.”

“Why do I even try with you, huh?” Adrien whined, shooing away his kwami with his flowers.

“You know, green might be your color, but jealousy is a _terrible_ look on you,” Plagg sassed his holder, before he jumped into the latter’s pocket to continue his nap. “Well, what do you want me to say Adrien?” he then asked in a muffled voice, when Adrien didn’t retort. “You just got a fragile heart that gets shattered every two seconds and a nasty tendency to overdramatize everything, but that doesn’t make you a bad person. In fact, I think it just adds to your charm,” he went on, carefully sticking his head out of Adrien’s shirt to catch the latter’s reaction—he didn’t seem amused, to Plagg’s discontent, but at least, his frown was gone. The kwami was about say something else, but then thought better of it. A few seconds passed by before he appeared to notice the flowers Adrien held in hand for the first time. “What are the flowers for? Are they for Felix?”

Adrien blinked in confusion. “Uh… I don’t know. I thought it would be nice? Why? Do you not think he’s gonna like them?”

The black kwami shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“He’s been away for some time. I thought it would be a good way of welcoming him back, you know?” the young man said, but one could see his uncertainty creeping at the back of his throat and tainting each one of his words, as his body stiffened entirely. “I haven’t seen him for almost three years, now. I-I… Is it too much? Should I get rid of these?”

“Why?”

Adrien was about to say something, when the disrupted voice in the speakerphones announced the momentary arrival of Felix’s train. The latter had taken a couple weeks off from his job in Berlin specifically to come home and assist his little brother’s graduation, which was taking place on Sunday of next week.

“That’s him! Hide, Plagg!” Adrien instructed the little floating cat, as he put on his widest smile and stepped closer to the platform to greet his brother.

Felix always travelled light, and, as he made his way to Adrien and the latter only noticed a single Louis Vuitton briefcase, he realized this time was no exception. You see, Felix still had all his stuff intact in his old room at the Agreste mansion, so he didn’t really need to hoard himself with an infinite number of bags. It was rather smart, if you thought about it. Still though, whenever Adrien saw him approach like that, almost empty-handed, it just reminded him of the hard truth that his brother and he lived in different cities, in different countries, even, and that Felix was only in Paris visiting. He never stayed too long, too.

Adrien knew his feelings were unfair, and that it was far from being Felix’s fault, but he…he just missed his brother, and…wished they could spend more time together.

“Are those for me?” Felix’s lips curled up in a smirk, as his blue-gray eyes lit in amusement. He gestured to the bouquet Adrien was holding. “Aw, you shouldn’t have,” he said, an ounce of undetectable sarcasm underlying his words, before he reached for the flowers to take them. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome! A-and… Welcome back!” Adrien exclaimed. “H-how was your trip?”

“It was alright. I was able to sleep the whole time,” he replied simply, always so naturally perfectly poised. That man was going to die before he let his age impair his posture, Adrien was sure of it. God, he looked so much like their father, it was almost chilling. “The food was not, however.”

“Are you hungry, then? We could stop at a restaurant, or a café, if you want,” Adrien suggested. “At this hour, they must still be serving breakfast.”

Immediately, an emotion Adrien was not clearly able to make out flashed on Felix’s face, only to disappear a second later. “Sure, why not? I seem to remember your girlfriend—sorry, I meant to say your friend that is a girl—works at a bakery somewhere around here. We could stop by,” he proposed and didn’t miss the way Adrien’s eyes rounded in pure _fear_ , while his cheeks reddened at once. “ You know, say hi.”

“U-uh… Um, y-you sure? T-there are plenty of other places we could go to, a-and… Besides, she doesn’t work there. The bakery is owned by her parents. S-she only helps out when she can… I-I don’t think she’ll be in, today, though. She was complaining about her real job just yesterday, y-you know.”

Felix shrugged, doing an excellent job at ignoring all of his brother’s S.O.S. signals. The latter could hear Plagg _cackling_ inside his shirt. “Well, we could still try our luck, don’t you think? I’m almost eager to see what she is all about, now.”

Felix had heard many stories about Marinette—well, most of the stories consisted of endless lists of all the positive adjectives that Adrien used to describe her, but, you got the point. Naturally, her name piqued his interest whenever spoken, and it had been a long time since he had wanted to meet her, if only to put a face to her name.

Adrien felt cold when the car stopped in front of _La Mie Dorée_ and he almost jumped at Felix when the latter tried to open the door. “W-wait! A-are you sure you want to go in? It’s not too late to change your mind,” he attempted one last time, but his plea, not unlike all his other ones, fell to deaf ears.

Even though Felix was only a couple years older than Adrien, he presented better, and looked more mature than his little brother. Felix cared very much about his appearance, one could tell; he always wore suits and a clean shave, while Adrien was more of a tee-shirts-and-designer-jeans kind of guy. He wore his hair shorter too, and one could often catch him recompose himself anytime he felt like he was loosening up in the company of others. Although Adrien was a model, and was trained to stand, pose, and walk like one, Felix had a better posture.

When they were kids, both used to stroll along the runway in their father’s designs and take part in many photoshoots in the name of Gabriel’s brand. Now, it has been a long time since Felix had grown out of all this, but the twenty-seven-year-old still cringed whenever he found an old picture of himself on the cover of an outdated fashion magazine. Adrien still modeled, but only because he knew it pleased his father, and one could argue that, at least, his schedule today was not nearly as hectic as it used to be when he was younger.

“Are you afraid I’m going to embarrass you, Adrien?”

The latter didn’t answer anything to that and Felix only rolled his eyes at his little brother, grinning mischievously, before he exited the car, the young model on his tail.

After their mother disappeared when they were fifteen and thirteen years old respectfully, the pair had grown closer together, as they watched Gabriel slowly draw away from them. Felix hadn’t been as affected as Adrien by that last bit, however, for he had never really felt close to his father, nor had he ever felt the need to build a proper relationship with him to begin with. Then, the years had passed, and, just like that, he had eventually stopped missing his mother.

A year following Emilie’s departure, Adrien had convinced their father to send him to school. Felix was also given the choice, but the latter preferred to attend a different one, where all students were little snobbish blonds with a snooty accent and wore pretentious looks and itchy uniforms. He didn’t really care about that though, for the unique reason he had picked the school in the first place was because of its reputation. After his high school graduation, Felix went to study fashion and marketing at a renowned Roman university in Italy, where he stayed with his mother’s sister Amélie. It had been a five-year on-campus program that coupled bachelors and master’s degrees together, and although he never took summer classes, he only returned to Paris once, for his little brother’s graduation from Dupont. The two of them still Skyped every day, however, so it wasn’t really like Felix had _abandoned_ Adrien or anything like it.

As the two Agreste men stepped into the bakery, the first thing Felix noticed was how much bigger it had gotten in there, since the last time Adrien had brought him here, at least four or five years ago. After he uttered his observation, he was told that Tom Dupain, Marinette’s father, and the owner of the _Mie Dorée_ , had decided to expand shop a couple years ago, and had bought the empty space the store next door had left, when its owner had gone bankrupt. There was a little sitting area now, which extended to the sidewalk to form a little Parisian _terrasse_ , where people actually took seats and ordered their food directly to their tables. The Dupain-Cheng had also hired a waiter—who was, in reality, Tom’s teenage nephew—to take care of the little macaron tower held on display in the middle of the bakery, as well as the clientele.

Sabine Cheng was on cashier register duty, and her face lit up altogether when he saw Adrien walk in. “Adrien!” she chirped, as she got off her stool and went around the counter to greet her daughter’s friend properly. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, dear! It seems like forever since the last time I saw you, here,” she said, kissing him on both cheeks and hugging him tightly.

“Hello, Mrs. Cheng,” Adrien said shyly, his face, slightly pink, when Marinette’s mother finally let go of him. “How are you?”

Sabine placed her hands on her hips and gave him an exaggerated pout. “Adrien, honey, I already told you to call me Sabine. You make me feel like a hundred years old,” she scolded him, but in a friendly way. “I’m good,” she then said, as she rearranged her apron—it had _Bestest of Moms_ written on its front in huge pink letters, surrounded by an array of wildflowers tastefully disposed all around the clothing, and Adrien remembered seeing Marinette with barely a sketch of this design only a couple months back. “What about you? I heard you were going to graduate next week! Congratulations!”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. By the way, Mrs. C…uh, _Sabine_ , this is my brother Felix. I’m not sure you two have met before. He just arrived from Berlin.”

“Oh! Hello, nice to meet you!” Sabine asserted excitedly, holding out a hand to shake Felix’s.

“Likewise,” the latter politely replied.

After Rome, Felix had spent some time in Spain, where he worked as the vice-president of a major kids’ fashion enterprise, before his superiors decided to promote him, double his salary, and send him to represent their brand in Argentina.

While there, his little Skype sessions with Adrien started to dwindle more and more, to a point where they would go months before they saw each other on-screen again, even though Felix always made it a point to send his brother postcards every two weeks or so—Adrien still had those, by the way. He held on to them dearly. One of his favorites was a picture of an old fish house by the quay, on the back of which Felix had written, _Just had the best breaded_ merluza _in here. You would have loved it, I’m sure. This place will definitely be the first one on our list for when you will come to visit me in Buenos Aires. When will that be, by the way? Take the summer off and come see me. You will fall in love with the culture here. What are you waiting for to get out of Paris, already?_ That was probably what Adrien regretted the most about being Cat Noir; he couldn’t exactly leave Paris for such a long period of time, now, could he?

Felix was only supposed to stay in South America for six months at first, but he was doing such a good job, that his bosses renewed his contract for another three, right before he had been spotted by the HR department of a rival company, which had offered him a higher paying position in Singapore. He accepted, of course, and spent another seven months there, during which he even managed to get engaged to his ex-fiancée, before the couple broke up, over some issue Adrien didn’t really understand, and the latter’s brother decided to request a transfer. His new firm sent him to Berlin, Germany, where he had been working for about two months, and Adrien was just happy his brother and he lived on the same continent, now, at least.

“Oh, I know what you’d like!” Sabine exclaimed suddenly, placing a gentle hand on Adrien’s arm. “Marinette and her father are in the kitchen, preparing a fresh batch of rhubarb pies for the Durands' anniversary party,” she let him know, and Felix only snickered when he saw his brother stiffen at the mention of Marinette’s name.

“Rhubarb pies are my favorite,” he thought it’d be fun to mention, and bit down a grin, when droplets of sweat started to form right above Adrien’s upper lip.

Sabine smiled. “Then, go in there, already!” she pressed the pair. “Quick! Before they pack them all and send them to be delivered.”

“Why? Just… _why_?” Adrien grunted, right after Sabine guided him and his brother behind the counter, and gestured to the big door next to the shelving unit where all the baguettes and bread were displayed.

“You know, my German colleague tried to make a joke the other day,” Felix answered, his hands carefully folded behind his back, while Adrien’s arms hung at his sides. “It was so terrible, I actually felt sick afterward. I’ve gone two whole months without laughing once,” he added. “I just want to have some fun.”

“You don’t deserve the flowers I got you.”

Felix only smirked, before he pushed the doors that led to the kitchens. There was a big man with a chef’s hat standing by the oven, while a young woman with dark hair moved around the counters as she mopped the floor. She had her hair tied up in a messy bun and was humming some old 90’s song, as she tidied up the work station. And, as Felix took in the way Adrien immediately stopped in his tracks when he saw her, he guessed that she might be Marinette. Both were turning their backs at Adrien and Felix, so none really noticed their presence.

“Sweetie? Can you put pick up the flour bags that we didn’t use and return them to the storage room?” the big man—Marinette’s father, surely—asked, before he grabbed a couple boxes sitting by the shelves and headed outside.

The bluenette then got to her feet. “Sure thing!” she almost sang, as she paced towards the little tower of flour bags placed next to the sink and picked them all up easily.

As a wild idea went through Felix’s mind, the latter decided to act quickly and stretched out his foot to make Marinette trip; all the bags the latter was holding were obstructing her sight, so she wasn’t able to dodge it and fell, dropping everything she had in hand, and staining all the kitchens’ cabinets with white powder. Felix, however, was able to catch her before she hit the ground, tightly gripping at her middle, as he held her, only a few centimeters off the floor.

“ _Shit_!” the young man heard her curse, right before she froze altogether, when she was met with his gaze. She grasped at his arms to maintain her balance and opened her mouth to say something, but no word ever came out; she just gasped.

She was very beautiful, Felix didn’t mind admitting that much, and, although her clothes and hair was all covered in flour now, he could still discern the delicate features of her face, her high cheekbones, her arched eyebrows, her smooth chin… Felix worked in fashion. Every day, he encountered thousands of attractive women, who all knew just how to enhance their natural beauty to catch their surroundings’ eye. Marinette was no exception; her makeup was on point, her skin, spotless, and her hair, even though full of flour dust, appeared very shiny. She had big almond-shaped blue eyes that clashed exquisitely with her Asian figure and full lips covered in pink glitter gloss. Be it only for her looks, Felix instantly understood why Adrien always threw such a fuss whenever she was mentioned in a conversation.

“Careful, there,” he whispered, as he slowly brought her up to a standing position. “We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“T-thank…thank y-you!” Marinette blurted out, blushing slightly, before she realized she very much did not know the man who was standing in her father’s kitchen, which access was not exactly allowed to the public. “Uh, w-what…what-what are you…?” She closed her eyes, grunted, and slapped herself on the forehead to quickly snap out of it.

Felix found it amusing. “My name is Felix,” he introduced himself, cutting her off right when he suspected she was about to comment on his trespassing. He smiled in quite a seductive way, as he extended his hand toward her. She shook it instinctively. “I’m Adrien’s older brother.”

“A-Adrien…?” Marinette seemed confused for a second there, before she actually caught a glimpse at her friend, who was standing next to Felix, his expression, completely undecipherable. “Oh my God, Adrien! Hi! W-what are you guys doing here?” she asked, her eyes rapidly darting from one brother to the other.

When Adrien didn’t answer, Felix decided to clarify the situation. “I just came off a train from Berlin. As I have not eaten yet, Adrien _insisted_ on bringing me here. He said you made the best rhubarb pies in the whole neighborhood.”

“O-Oh! You’re so lucky then! My dad and I baked an extra one,” she let them know. “We could even take it upstairs if you want. I think all the tables here are taken, anyway.”

“Great idea, uh…?”

“Oh! Uh, right. I’m mm… I’m M-Marinette. N-nice to meet you, Felix.”

“Marinette? That’s an unusual and beautiful name,” he complimented her, watching with delight as his brother’s nostrils flared in ire. “It’s very rare and unique. You must be some kind of special.”

Marinette’s eyes rounded in surprise, and she seemed completely taken aback by Felix’s words. “O-Oh, uh…s-special? Special? M-me? Oh, uh… I-I don’t… I don’t know a-about that.”

Adrien’s older brother’s face softened. “It has two meanings, depending on its etymology,” he explained. “‘Marinette’ is another word for ‘Little Marie,’ meaning the one who rises, the one who prevails. But it can also originate from Hebrew, coming from Myriam, which means the one who is loved.” He paused, and looked right at Marinette, making the blush that slowly crept along her neck, spread to her cheeks and the rest of her face. “We may not know each other, but, in the way Adrien talks about you, I think both of these definitions suit you perfectly.”

“Wow, that’s…” Marinette barely managed to choke out, still dazed by Felix’s natural charm. “How do you know all that?”

“I’m very passionate about onomastics,” Felix replied. “That’s the study of the meaning and origin of words, for you, Adrien,” he joked, winking at his brother who was, quite literally, _fuming_. “Your name alone is one beautiful alexandrine, Marinette.”

_Okay, that was pretty smooth_ , Marinette thought, as Felix’s lines inevitably made her think of her partner’s flirty persona, right before the blond man reached for her face, to pull a yellow rose from behind her ear.

“Fuck, you _are_ good,” the bluenette realized out loud.

Felix lifted his eyebrows at her in shock, before he let his face relax, and smiled. “Why, thank you. I am quite skilled, ain’t I?”

“Alright, mister,” Marinette snickered. “Get off your high horse. How about I clean up this mess real quick, and we all go upstairs to eat that rhubarb pie?”

“Well, do you need help?” Felix wondered, discretely putting his hand on his brother’s shoulder to push him towards Marinette. “Just tell us what to do.”

Marinette smiled at the pair, before she instructed them to grab a couple of spare brooms her parents kept in the little storage unit behind them.

The task was quickly done, despite Adrien and Felix’s constant bickering, and, just when Marinette had picked up the pie from the middle of the center counter, Felix faked an urgent business call, to be able to ditch his brother and the bluenette—he figured Adrien would appreciate it, fi he left him alone with his crush. That, or he’ll hate him. In both cases, however, a full array of all sorts of possibilities could arise.

He told the pair to go ahead without him but, when they insisted to wait for him, he pretended to be feeling a bit tired suddenly, and claimed a little rest would do him good. Adrien’s chauffeur was waiting for them just around the corner anyway, he said, so he could easily borrow him and go home to relax, after his trip.

He was a good liar, and particularly quick on his feet, too, Adrien would give him that at least, for, when the latter suggested he’d accompanied his brother to their father’s mansion, Felix was once more able to turn the situation around, and persuaded him and Marinette that he’d be better off alone, since he had, in any case, to check in with his firm in a short time.

“Your brother seems nice,” the bluenette observed, as she and Adrien went up the stairs to her parents’ apartment. Although he had left pretty abruptly, she had still managed to convince Felix to take some pie with him. “Why haven’t I met him before?”

“Felix travels a lot,” Adrien answered. “It’s barely if _I_ get to see him.”

“Is he in town to assist to your graduation?”

Adrien nodded, but didn’t say anything.

As they made it to the apartment and Marinette invited him in, the pair strolled casually into the kitchen, and placed the pie on the table. Marinette then took hold of two plates that sat idle on the dish drying rack, as well as a knife in the drawer next to the microwave, and sliced up two whole pieces of pie for Adrien and her.

They talked a bit as they ate, exchanged some vain and meaningless chitchat, before Marinette got up and went to the bathroom, to try and get rid of all the flour in her hair, once she realized she was _shedding_ everywhere.

When she got back, Adrien had already washed the plates and put the pie away. She thanked him, before they moved to the living room, where she turned the T.V. on. Only then has Adrien noticed that she had let down her hair—thing that she did not do all that often—and that they were slightly wet. _Why was it that she had to look so pretty?_

“You’d think that _ten years later_ , I would’ve left my clumsiness behind me,” she joked, as she laid her back between the cushions of the couch, and relaxed. “But, nope. I was born with two left feet, and I’m gonna die with two left feet.” She chuckled. Adrien tried to smile, but it didn’t stay on. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

He hesitated, opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, and shook his head. “It’s…not really important.”

“What?” Marinette snorted. “Of course, it’s important. Come on, tell me,” she repeated, but he stayed quiet. “Adrien,” she insisted again. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” he started, but cut himself short before he could go on with his thought, and simply got rid of the latter. “I don’t know. I guess I just got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

He glanced away, avoiding Marinette’s gaze, but the latter only picked up the remote control to lower the T.V.’s volume, before she shifted her position to face her friend completely. He still wasn’t looking at her. She reached for his hand and squeezed softly, slowly interlacing their fingers together.

“You know you can tell me anything, Adrien,” she assured him in a low voice.

When he didn’t say anything right away, Marinette really thought Adrien wasn’t going to talk. She placed her second hand on top of his and made him look into her eyes. _Ugh, it just made it a thousand times worse_. “I know,” he nodded. “But, believe me, it’s really not worth talking about.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, yeah… Let’s change the subject,” he shook his head. “Please.”

“Um, okay,” Marinette reluctantly agreed, slowly letting go of Adrien’s hand. She laid her arm on the back pillow of the couch and rested her head on her elbow. She looked deep in thought. “Oh! Uh, Luka received a call this morning from the London guy, asking him and the band to meet him in his office this afternoon. It looked like it was good news,” she beamed.

“Wow, that’s er… That’s great!” Adrien tried to match her excitement. “W-were you with him? Uh, when he got the call, I mean.”

Marinette snickered. “No,” she replied, shaking her head. “And, _no_ , we did not end up spending the night together,” she added, a playfulness in her eyes, when she caught glimpse of the smile Adrien was trying to suppress.

“That’s not what… I wasn’t going to ask you about that.”

“Sure, you weren’t.” She paused, then sighed. “You know, Luka and I… we’re really not that deep. We’re just friends.”

“Yeah, but everyone thinks you’re dating,” he countered and, although he was not looking at Marinette, he swore he could hear the way her left eyebrow shoot up, while she puckered her lips at him.

“ _Alya_ thinks we’re dating,” she argued, and she sounded very amused. “She really wants to believe it, too. I think she stays up every night, praying for me to get cuffed soon, and probably annoying the heck out of Nino by the same occasion,” she joshed. Adrien laughed at that. “But she’s _married_! You can’t really expect her to understand what us, _singles_ , have to go through every day!”

“Well, to her credit, Luka _did_ try to kiss you last night,” Adrien demurred.

“It was probably the adrenaline, you know, from being on stage and all,” Marinette was quick to dismiss it. “I’m serious!” she piped, when her friend didn’t seem convinced. “I just… I don’t really see myself being in a committed relationship with him,” she went on. “At all. Besides, it’s not like _he_ wants me to be his girlfriend, either. He’s not ready to settle down, anyway.”

“Are _you_?”

“Am I what?”

“Are you ready to settle down?” he asked. The question seemed innocent, blurted out like that, but Adrien could feel something warm, like hope, tingling on the surface of his skin. “You know? Find some poor guy to spend the rest of your life with?”

Marinette chuckled. “Maybe.” Her cheeks were pink suddenly, and she was biting on her lip, smiling like she was thinking about something wonderful.

“And… w-who…who would you see yourself in a relationship with?”

“I don’t know,” she simpered dreamily. “Someone tall, dark and handsome…”

“Figured,” Adrien said, snorting. “I don’t think you could be more generic if you tried.”

“Probably not,” Marinette chortled. “What about you? How would you describe your perfect girl?”

_It’s you_ , he thought, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have said it, if Nadja Chamack hadn’t popped on Marinette’s T.V. screen, making the pair jump altogether, as the journalist let her famous catch-phrase introduce her to her audience.

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!” she whooped excitedly before an image of a person standing on top of City Hall zoomed into the screen. “Flash news: after almost hours of negotiating, the potential suicidal person standing on top of City Hall has finally made their intentions clear. They will not move or be moved, until they talk to Paris’ superhero duo, Ladybug and Cat Noir. Are they just a desperate fan, or do they truly think that our heroes will be the only ones able to help them? Stay tuned for more!”

“Ugh, I hate it how she always smiles with all her teeth, even when she’s announcing the worst of news,” Marinette remarked, frowning annoyingly at her T.V.

“Yeah, it’s kind of jarring,” Adrien agreed, then got to his feet.

“Where are you going?”

“Er, I was just going to use the bathroom,” he answered.

“Oh, sure. You know where they are.” He nodded. “You feeling better, by the way?”

“Yeah,” he assured her. “Don’t worry about it, Mar.”

She shrugged. “If you say so.” She brushed her hand through her hair and grimaced. “Fuck. I still have flour in my hair, don’t I?” she thought that was an as good distraction as any. “No, don’t worry, I’ll go upstairs,” she told Adrien, as she rushed to the stairs that led to her little attic and sprinted to her bathroom.

She locked the door behind her, fished her ‘civilian’ mask from her purse to put it on, before she called on her transformation. She checked herself in the mirror as she unhooked her yo-yo from her hip, making sure one last time she had truly gotten rid of all the powder in her hair, before she opened the window and hopped right through it.

***

People were on their way to work when the police had been forced to close off the roads that surrounded City Hall, and now, there was a little crowd that had gathered next to the officers. Roger Raincomprix held out his megaphone upwards, as he negotiated with the person that stood right under the giant French flag, threatening to jump off.

One couldn’t exactly make out her face from the ground, but it was a woman who was on that roof, screaming down at the police that she needed to see Ladybug and Cat Noir, _now_. Luckily enough, as soon as Nadja Chamack had announced that bit of information, it wasn’t long before the superheroes joined their troubled fan to try and calm her down. As she turned around to face them, however, she wasn’t crying, as they had assumed, nor did she seem distraught in any way. In fact, she even smiled at them, in a way that rendered her somewhat terrifying.

“Ladybug, Cat Noir,” she greeted them, “…and their friend,” she added, when she noticed the vibrant costume of Viperion, standing right between the famous duo. “We meet, at last.”

Ladybug, who had tied her yo-yo around her waist as not to startle what she thought to be a fan, grabbed it immediately, and sprung it at her side, to form a shield. “Okay, who are you?”

“An enemy of yours,” the woman replied. She was tall and muscular, with very short dark hair and evil black eyes, and stared at the trio with a mean look on her face. She was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans and a white tank top, as a glistening upper arm cuff strangled her bicep. It was platinum, Ladybug was quick to recognize the metal, as well as the ancient inscriptions that were carved into the jewel, but the superhero wasn’t given enough time to share her speculations before the woman called on her transformation. “Nimue, _cackle_!”

There was a flash of brown and orange light and, a second later, the woman that had stood before them was now dressed in a gorgeous orange ensemble, which cloth was bordered with what seemed like leopard fur, and that left naked most of her skin. She held a rusty iron spear in hand, but Ladybug knew well that didn’t make her weapon any less impressive. The couple dozens of Parisians that were watching the scene from bellow all gasped as one.

“Ladybug, Cat Noir, I am _Ignoblia_ ,” she introduced herself. “I am the holder of the Miraculous of the Hyena, which holds the power to curse and bind my enemies’ fates to a spell of my choosing. I am here because you have something that belongs to me, and I want it back. Before the city of Paris, I challenge the two of you for the Lion Miraculous. If you win, I will let you keep it, and will be on my way. If you lose, you will have to return it to me, along with one of _your_ many Miraculouses. Will you accept? Or should I destroy your city, in order to find my golden ring myself?”


	4. Colorblind

Cat Noir didn’t know at what moment exactly did he reach for his baton, but it was in his hand now, almost extended to full-length and wielded before him, as his thumb searched for the hidden button under the neon green string at the middle. Once pressed, it drew out the knives at both ends of his weapon.

Ignoblia did not miss it, as her ferocious, animal eyes converged on the menacingly sharp blades of the blond superhero. She smiled; she had fangs, and hers were bigger than Cat Noir’s, while the ears she wore on the top of her head were smaller than his, and rounder. She a had a shorter, fluffier tail, which she also seemed able to control, but overall looked more like Rena Rouge’s ugly third cousin than anything else. Immediately, Cat noir wondered if her powers too played on the weaknesses of the human mind to engineer all sorts of illusions.

“You can put your weapon away, Black Cat,” she said, as her fist unclenched and loosened around her spear and she stood back. “That is not how you fight the Miraculous of the Hyena.”

“Why don’t you enlighten us, then?” Ladybug defied her, her voice strong and unflinching, as her yo-yo swung around her, whipping the air soundlessly. The string of her weapon was so dense and sharp, Cat Noir thought, she could slice a person’s arm right off if she wanted to. “We don’t have all day.”

Ignoblia smiled at her mischievously, her upper lip curling up only slightly, but enough to uncover her pointy front teeth. “In a rush, I see. Very well,” she said, before she turned her back at the three superheroes to face the growing crowd of Parisians who were leaving their cars in the middle of the road and getting out to see what was happening. “You’re quite the popular attraction,” she remarked, before she yelled at the Parisians, “I need a champion! Which one of you will bear the honor of the sacrifice?”

Not surprisingly, no one moved. Ignoblia only looked amused.

“No? Too afraid, perhaps? It is alright. I don’t mind taking my pick,” she whispered to herself, before she turned around, shooting the trio her brightest smile. “You stay right here,” she cackled, her laugh, holding some kind of mystical spores that kept anyone from disobeying her orders, before she jumped off the building and landed at the core center of the crowd.

Instantly, everyone started to spread around and run, race inside of City Hall, or getting into their cars and driving off, as if they just realized they were right in the middle of the danger-zone. Ignoblia let them escape, as she elegantly made her way towards a young woman who was hiding behind a car that had been abandoned on the road.

“Hello,” she greeted her, and her voice was soft then, it was almost enough to disguise her as one of the good guys. The woman did not say anything, only bit on her tongue and closed her eyes, turning her face away from the villain.

Her whole body was shaking like a dead leaf. “Please don’t hurt me,” she whimpered, crouching over the sidewalk and shoving her sleeves in her mouth to keep herself from screaming. “Please. I beg you. Leave me alone.”

“Well, then,” Ignoblia pouted, sounding just a bit disappointed, before she simply walked past her, leaving her be. “You!” she called at someone who stood behind an advertising column. “Come out this instant,” she ordered, and giggled, directing the poison that drenched her voice to the civilian’s ears.

The latter couldn’t but obey, despite the alerted shrieks of the person she was evidently with.

“Beautiful,” Ignoblia complimented her. “Come closer,” she told her, and the woman listened and stepped forward.

She was tall and wore all black clothes; her stance was timid. The purple streaks in her hair hid away the special shade of brown that colored her eyes.

“Your necklace… it reminds me of a story. Will you be my champion, darling?” The tall woman nodded, making Ignoblia smile. “Splendid,” she said, before wrapping an arm around her champion’s waist, and another one under her knees, and carried her as she jumped on the hood of a nearby car, then on the back of a huge double-decker bus still full of tourists. She used the bus to hiss herself always higher and higher, until she finally reached the rooftop of City Hall, where she had previously left the superheroes, frozen in a trance.

As she put the woman down and delivered her opponents from her spell, she saw very well how Viperion’s face twisted in rage at the sight of her. “Juleka!” he screamed, a desperate cry that fell to deaf ears. He stood back in terror when the champion did not flinch. “What the hell did you do to her?!”

“Behave, Snake-boy,” Ignoblia replied, as she turned back to Juleka and asked her to turn over her necklace. “Now, Ladybug, Black Cat, listen carefully, for the Miraculous of the Hyena is not defeated easily. Our cackles are chilling, our giggles are eerie, and just like the gazelles in the Savannah, you hear them and you scurry.”

“Fuck, she’s rhyming,” Cat Noir muttered to Ladybug. “That can’t be good.”

Ignoblia glanced at him then, and smirked playfully, before Juleka’s lacy collar turned into a diamond necklace in her hands. “Have you ever heard of the curse of the Belle of Adamant, Black Cat?” she asked the superhero, although all four knew very well that she was not expecting an answer. “The Belle was the daughter of a mighty king—as are _all_ princesses who bear the curses of jealous witches—who gifted her with a diamond necklace, much like this one, which he forcibly took from a powerful warlock,” she began, as she took Juleka by her hand and guided her to the center of the rooftop. “After he was beaten by the king, the warlock felt humiliated.

“He was spiteful, too,” she went on, before she banged the ground with her spear, invoking a kind of giant bird cage that delicately sprouted from the concrete and closed around the Hyena’s champion. “He captured the king’s daughter and put her in a cage, which he placed in the middle of the woods that surrounded the city of Adamant. The only way to deliver the princess from her fate was to find every single diamond that made up the necklace that was stolen from him and reconstitute it.” She paused, lingered her fingers across the bars of Juleka’s cage. “You can sit down, darling,” she instructed Juleka. “Many princes and heroes tried their luck at the warlock’s game, but all failed, and were turned into ants.

“I see the distress on your face, Black Cat. Your apprehension is justified. Now, you know how one fights the Miraculous of the Hyena. Our power is to bring nightmares and curses to life. Our opponents must accept the challenge, in exchange for our champion’s life. By the Snake’s reaction earlier, I am guessing that I picked the right person. Well, then? Do you accept the challenge? Or should I extend this curse to all the people of Paris?”

Ladybug closed her eyes and shook her head. “You say this like we have a choice. Of course, we accept your challenge.”

“When I win, I will ask from the Snake to return the Lion Miraculous to me, as well as give up his own.” Ignoblia smiled and let out an evil laugh, before she threw her head back and called on her powers. “ _Delirium!_ ” she exclaimed towards the sky, and, as she did, a giant hourglass appeared right next to Juleka’s cage.

Without a word, she swiftly undid the diamond necklace, and threw the diamonds on the floor. They vanished immediately, to the trio’s bafflement.

Ignoblia sneered. “Ladybug, Black Cat, you have one hour to find the twenty-seven diamonds and reconstitute my champion’s necklace. Fail, and see yourselves transform into ants.”

“I hate to tell you I told you so,” Cat Noir sighed, pursing his lips at his partner, “but… I mean, _duh_?!”

Ladybug rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever.”

“What do you mean ‘whatever’? You know, I may just be the irrational one right now, but I don’t think I’d really enjoy spending the rest of my days as an ant…?” he replied, his hands on his hips, as his tail frantically beat the air around him.

“Oh, come on, Debbie Downer, I’d argue this is the most fun we’ve had probably since Hawk Moth’s akumas,” Ladybug joked, before she tossed her yo-yo to the sky and called on her _Lucky Charm_.

“Is that really your idea of fun?” Cat Noir snickered. “How many of your friends have you dragged with you to _jail_?”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow at him and smirked. “You saying I’m too much to handle, Cat Noir?” she retorted.

Cat Noir shook his head, grinning. “No, you are. I’m just not denying it,” he shrugged, before he passed his pole over his shoulders to rest his elbows on it.

“Ha,” Ladybug snorted. “You couldn’t handle me if I came with instructions, anyway.”

The blond superhero chuckled. “Are you calling me stupid, or is that a very far-fetched way to hint on the fact that you’d be a _terrible_ girlfriend?”

The holder of the Ladybug Miraculous crossed her arms and puckered her lips at her partner, as the right corner of her mouth twitched just slightly. “You _wish_.”

“Is that… Are you… _flirting_ with me, _Bugaboo_?” he teased her, unable to hold down a laugh. “ _Outrageous_. We are superheroes, and on duty, no less,” he said, reminding his partner of her infamously famous words, which she rarely went too long without uttering. He expected a strong comeback to that, too, but Ladybug only smiled, as her face suddenly softened. He frowned in confusion. “Why are you smiling? I thought you hated that nickname.”

She looked away, then back at him, biting on her lower lip as she did. “No, I do. It’s just…you haven’t called be Bugaboo in quite some time,” she told him, and didn’t miss the way he blushed at that.

“Um, hi?” Viperion stepped in at last, and suddenly, it seemed as if that was the first time he actually spoke. “Earth to superheroes? We have a bunch of diamonds to recover all across the city in a…a little less than an hour now, thanks to you… But, please, _do_ continue to dick around.”

“Ah, Viperion,” Ladybug tittered, “sometimes I forget how much of a sour _pussy_ you can be.”

“I’m sorry,” Cat Noir’s reaction was almost immediate. “Did you just say that _out loud_?”

Ladybug winked at him. “Better believe it.”

Viperion only rolled his eyes and shook his head at the pair, before he gestured to the _Lucky Charm_ in the superheroine’s hands, and sighed. “Okay, what are we working with?” He sounded exasperated—well, rightfully so.

Ladybug shrugged. “Well, let’s see…shall we?” she muttered to herself as she took a long look at what her yo-yo has spitted at her just a bit earlier.

It was a red box with black polka-dots on it, shaped like a hexagon, and just big enough to contain a Miraculous. For a second, she thought her _Lucky Charm_ was telling her to retrieve the Lion Miraculous and return it to Ignoblia, but then realized how much of an idiotic move _that_ would be. She opened the box. There was a stone inside; it was transparent, with a hole in the middle. She grabbed it between her thumb and index finger to show it to Cat Noir and Viperion.

The latter, instead of saying anything, only slapped the screen of his wristwatch to start the time loop. “It’s set for exactly fifty-six minutes,” he announced, and Ladybug and Cat Noir nodded in unison. “Okay, so…what’s that? It looks like an adder stone,” he started, before he took Ladybug’s _Lucky Charm_ from her and pressed it against his left eye to look through the tiny hole in the center of the stone.

“What’s an adder stone?” Ladybug wondered.

“Something you use to see what’s invisible to the naked eye. _Magical_ things,” Viperion told her. “Jul… I mean, my sister and I used to chase down fair folk with these, when we were younger,” he added.

“Fairies aren’t real,” Cat Noir reminded him.

“Obviously I know that,” Viperion replied, as he stared down at the little bit of grass at his feet, analyzing it closely through the adder stone, like he was waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he glanced back at his partners, pouting. “I don’t know,” he said, handing the stone back to Ladybug. “I thought I’d try something. But frankly, I have no idea what to do with this.”

“Wait, hold on a second, maybe you’re right,” Ladybug argued, as she firmly held on to the stone and lifted it to her eye. The world she saw through it was colored in black and white, but the little magic box she had in hand glowed between her fingers. “But…maybe we’re just using it at a smaller scale than we’re supposed…to,” she spoke slowly, as she looked around her carefully, before she caught a glimpse of the top of the Eiffel tower while looking for clues—anything, really, that might call on to her—and remembered the telescopes that were available up there for timed purchases. “ _Eurêka_!” she exclaimed, as she started running in the direction of the Champs-de-Mars. “Come on, we need to get to the top!” she urged Cat Noir and Viperion, who followed her without thinking twice about it. “We can see the whole city from up there!”

Ladybug threw her yo-yo in the air and waited for it to wrap around something she could use to hiss herself up in the air and get to the Eiffel tower quicker, while Cat Noir raced her on all-four, as he rushed across Paris’ old blue and gray rooftops, using his baton expertly to keep balance. Viperion was right behind them, _sliding_ on building tops like he was on an episode of _Zeke and Luther_ ; just when Cat Noir was wondering how exactly was he doing that, he remembered him mentioning once that there was some kind of magic snake scales sewn at the sole of his costume’s shoes, which allowed him to slither somewhat easily on all types of surfaces. Pfft, _show-off._

The trio climbed the tower in a classic superhero fashion and landed in three perfectly synchronized thumps at the very top of the historical monument, as tourists started to take out their cameras and chant in their honor to acclaim them. Ladybug smiled politely at the people she made eye-contact with as she made her way to a free telescope—she had to borrow money from a fan, since she didn’t exactly have access to her purse in those clothes—and placed the adder stone on the eyepiece holder before she took a look.

“Holy _dick_!” she let the words slip out. She slapped her hand against her mouth when she remembered that the trio was not alone, but it was already too late. “Here, _look_ ,” she said to no one in particular, as she scooted away to let one of her partners take over. “You were right, Viperion. Our Miraculouses are magic, so… I guess anything we uh… _create_ by using them is magical. Ignoblia created these diamonds; they’re not real, they’re magic diamonds,” she pointed out the obvious.

“Okay, so…uh, how are we gonna do that?” Cat Noir asked. “We only have one stone. Twenty-seven by three… that’s nine diamonds, each. I really don’t think an hour is enough time to tour the entire city, superhero speed or not.”

“Don’t worry about time, right now,” Ladybug countered. “We’re still on our first loop,” she explained, and glanced at Viperion like she was expecting some sort of confirmation from him —he nodded.

“We need to be clever about this,” Cat Noir said. “The threat Hawk Moth and Mayura posed was not nearly as serious as what Ignoblia seems capable of. Your regenerative powers might work on akumas and Sentimonsters, but, for some reason, I don’t think it’ll do much if you try to use it to reverse this curse. Ignoblia has an advantage that we don’t,” he went on. “She knows about our Miraculouses and how they work. If she believed your _Miraculous Ladybug_ could save us, I don’t think she would’ve gone through all of this trouble.”

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense,” Ladybug agreed.

“Hey, what’s that noise?” Viperion wondered. “Do you hear that?”

It sounded like a small bell that someone was shaking—it came from below. Cat Noir leaned over the railing to take a look at what was happening downstairs.

“The elevator is blocked,” he told his superhero friends. “The liftman is trying to let the people know that there’s a problem…” He turned around, searching for the lift entrance of the last floor of the Eiffel tower to see if there was anything that could be done, Ladybug and Viperion at his heels.

There was a crowd blocking the elevator at their level. The superheroes tried to make their way through it; a boy was sitting on the floor in the middle of it, staring blankly at something shiny in his hands. The people around him seemed as if in a trance, ogling as well at the object the child had found.

“What the _hell_ …” Ladybug whispered, before she too, was caught in the daydream.

It looked like one of Ignoblia’s diamonds; a small, polished white rock, breaking every beam of sunlight into tiny rainbows. Ladybug tried to move towards it—now, the diamond was all she could see. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from it if she tried; it knew that. It was mocking her. She swore she could hear the Hyena cackling at her from a distance.

Ladybug felt like she was falling. Suddenly, she was back in high school and it was her fourteenth birthday. Her grandmother had ridden her motorcycle all the way from Verona to spend the day with her, but Alya had thrown her a surprise party. Gina was akumatized soon after Marinette had made the unwise decision to go celebrate with her friends rather than stay with her grandma.

Cat Noir had immediately come to her rescue, whisking her away from Befana before the latter could transform her into a statue of coal. He carried her all across Paris, holding her so tightly against his chest, she thought the world around her had stopped. He hid her inside that very same elevator and made sure she was alright, before he took off, to fight the new villain that had arisen.

She felt something nudging at her shoulder, before Viperion’s voice made its way into her brain. “Ladybug, hey, Ladybug… What are you waiting for? Grab it. Grab the diamond.”

The words shook her off her daze and she hurried to the boy to take Ignoblia’s diamond from him. The crowd around them was soon to wake up after that. She thanked the boy with a big smile and returned to her friends, once she saw the child go back to his parents.

The diamond sat perfectly in the center of her palm when she opened her hand to show it to Cat Noir and Viperion. “Maybe we’ll just need the adder stone to locate the diamonds’ general location, then follow the trail of zombies they seem to attract to retrieve them,” she suggested. “We could divide the city between the three of us and…” She let the rest of her sentence hang in the air.

“Yeah, let’s try this,” Cat Noir agreed. “You keep the diamond. Just twenty-six more to go.” He pouted.

“What?” Ladybug wondered.

The blond superhero shrugged. “I don’t know. It looks too easy.”

“Well, don’t _jinx_ it!” she shot back, as she slid the first diamond in her yo-yo’s infinity pocket. She then pressed the center spot of her weapon to draw out her earpiece. “We’ll keep contact through it all,” she said. “It might be a good way to keep us from becoming diamond-entranced zombies as well.”

Viperion nodded. “Let’s meet back here in thirty-five minutes, okay? This way, it would leave us some time to report our progress. And, don’t forget. Speed is of the essence.”

***

It didn’t take much before the three superheroes realized that the pattern followed by Ignoblia as she scattered the diamonds all throughout Paris did not really make sense and was rather completely random.

The first diamond was found in the elevator of the Eiffel tower, which Cat Noir thought was weird; Ladybug found the second diamond some seven minutes later inside a restaurant on the Boulevard de la Chapelle, a little further up towards the north of the city.

“ _Okay, I’m at the Montparnasse tower_ ,” Viperion’s voice spoke into his ear. “ _Ugh, the train station is full of people. I don’t see any zombies, though_.”

“ _Look closer_ ,” Ladybug answered. “ _There’s bound to be some. The adder stone showed something glowing in the region. What else could it be, if not a diamond?_ ” She paused. Cat Noir could hear her panting, as she ran along the streets of Paris, and recognized the unmistakable sound of her yo-yo flying through the air every time she swerved it around her. “ _Swing by the Lafayette Galleries_ ,” she suggested. “ _Maybe you’ll find something there._ ”

The way the three of them divided the city between them was fairly simple; Ladybug headed north, towards Montmartre, while Viperion was assigned everything beyond l’Unesco. Mostly because he was standing in the middle between the both of them, Cat Noir got to search the Seine and its surroundings, starting off at the Palais de Chaillot, and all the way up to l'Opéra de la Bastille.

Cat Noir was fast, arguably faster than Ladybug and Viperion even, and little bypassed his cat-like vision. As his figure tore through the haussmannian architecture that has made the city’s name, people on the streets started to cheer after him, shouting his name and clapping and whistling, all the while taking out their phones to film him. He’d learned to draw out the noises over the years, although they only grew louder and more persistent; Cat Noir was raised under the spotlight, so he was already used to the fans and the fame when he became a superhero. Ladybug, on the other hand, never really got over the whole recognition, the notoriety that came with her red costume, and always refused to be referred to as a celebrity… Cat Noir assumed that was the reason why she was still so keen on keeping their identities a secret, even after Hawk Moth’s desertion, as well as Master Fu’s parting— It didn’t bother him as much as it used to, not knowing who his partner was and all, and he eventually stopped insisting they dropped their masks and shared each other’s names all the time.

He took out his baton and pressed the little green paw that flashed on the bottom to draw out the screen. He had displayed a small clock widget on there that counted down the time he had left before he had to meet with the others at the Eiffel tower; the trio was already thirteen minutes in and was only in possession of two diamonds.

“Fuck,” he grunted.

“ _What happened?_ ” Viperion replied in his ear, and he sounded just as beat as Ladybug was earlier. “ _Is something wrong?_ ” he asked again.

Cat Noir shook his head, before he remembered the Snake couldn’t see him. “No, nothing’s wrong,” he tried to sound reassuring. “Er, I’m on my way to the Louvre.”

“ _Okay_.”

Unfortunately for him, Ignoblia had not really tried to make it easy for Cat Noir and put a diamond at the top of the Pyramide du Louvre, like he’d hoped.

He made his way inside and cut by the ticketing screens, swiftly ignoring the people who tried to stop him to ask him for a picture. He paced through the lasting exhibitions, barely glancing at the _Venus de Milo_ as he hurried past the _Winged Victory of Samothrace_. He tried to keep an eye open on anything that might appear strange, or out of the ordinary, but was quickly reminded that he was in a museum, for God’s sake; this kind of place literally _housed_ entranced-looking art lovers and braindead tourists who, more often than not, preferred to tour in groups.

He cursed under his breath as he ran across the Egyptian exposition and pushed away memories of past akumas that he had fought here, with Ladybug. He remembered Riposte, a villain Hawk Moth had created by using his friend Kagami’s distress and frustration against her, and which he had to duel with a sprained ankle. The akuma had chased him all throughout Paris, shouting his name at the top of her lungs, screaming that she demanded a rematch.

Cat Noir wondered sometimes about Kagami; the two of them never really kept contact after high school, although they did follow each other on social media. According to Marinette, she had gone back to Japan to study there, and the last thing they’ve heard of her was that she was trying to get on the Japanese Olympic fencing team.

Kagami and he dated in the past—well, he wasn’t sure _dating_ was what he’d call it today—but the former was never able to compete with Adrien’s feelings for Marinette, which she was, by the way, very aware of. They’d parted on good terms, but their relationship never really recovered after the breakup and they were not able to go back to being friends. _That_ was exactly what Adrien was afraid of, if he were to ever wake up one morning with the sudden urge to confess his love for his best friend.

“Argh,” he huffed. “ _Focus_.” He sighed in annoyance and clicked on his earpiece. “Hey, Ladybug, couldn’t you have asked your _Lucky Charm_ for three adder stones instead of just one? This whole thing just feels like a behemoth version of a giant Easter hunt, only way less fun, and with a death clock strapped to it.”

“ _After all these years, and you still don’t know how my_ Lucky Charm _works, do you?_ ” his partner replied immediately. It really was as if she was right next to him. “ _Maybe it thinks that we don’t need more than one._ ”

“Well, it _clearly_ overestimated our abilities,” Cat Noir said. “Why did _you_ get to keep the stone, anyway?” he asked. “No wonder you already found a second diamond.”

“ _Well, it_ is _my stone, Cat Noir,_ ” she snorted, almost arrogantly. “ _Are you still at the Louvre?_ ”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “You?”

“ _I’m making my way to the Sacré-Cœur_ ,” she told him.

“Viperion?” Cat Noir called after the newest member of the Miraculous team. “Any news on your side?”

“ _Maybe_ ,” the Snake’s somewhat distorted voice answered back. “ _I see something, but I’m still too far away to be sure. I think I might have found our third diamond._ ”

“Okay, keep in touch,” Cat Noir nodded to no one.

“ _Of course_.”

“You, too, Bugaboo.”

“ _Seriously? You’re back to calling me Bugaboo, now?_ ”

“What?” Cat Noir wondered in a tone that claimed itself innocent. “I thought you liked that nickname!”

“ _Pretty sure I never said that…_ ,” Ladybug countered, and Cat Noir could _hear_ her scowl.

He tried to suppress a laugh. “Pretty sure you did.”

“ _No, Cat Noir, I did not_.”

“Well, Bugaboo, I guess it’s your word against mine, then, isn’t it?” he retorted.

He imagined her rolling her eyes at him and had to bite the inside of his cheek to contain a giggle. “ _Ugh, whatever_ ,” she gave up—she always did, so, so easily. “ _Just keep us updated, ‘kay?_ ”

“You got it.”

Cat Noir’s steps came into a halt when he reached the double leaf door that led to the Salle Mollien, the bit of the Louvre that was entirely dedicated to the Romantic Era. He stood there for a second, as if he was contemplating something, and, for absolutely no apparent reason, the beat of his heart started to quicken. He hesitated shortly, before he entered the room.

The place had been decorated in 1863 by architect and decorative painter Alexandre Dominique Denuelle and the way the latter chose to order the paintings on the walls was left untouched since. Cat Noir tried not to make too much noise, as he strolled past Delacroix’s _Medea_ and Delaroche’s _Young Martyr_ , which he did not take too long to recognize. Large deep blue and black ottomans have been lined up in front of the paintings for people to sit on and study every masterpiece attentively; some visitors had rented a set of wireless headphones at the museum’s reception and listened to the audio-guide as they moved around.

Romanticism was born as a counter-reaction to the stern restrictions that accompanied the Classical period and the profound intellectual revolution that sparked the Enlightment movement, Cat Noir recalled, as he stared in awe at _The Raft of the Medusa_ , by Théodore Géricault. This work was what launched Géricault’s career in 1819 and is today considered an icon of French Romanticism. The scene retold the story of the fifteen sailors who survived the sinking of the _Medusa_ , and spent thirteen days floating aimlessly on a raft in the middle of the ocean. One could see perfectly the way despair and anguish ate at the faces of Géricault’s seamen, as they suffered starvation and dehydration, and their minds and bodies were kept up and animated by lunacy; romanticism was all about the emphasis of the senses, and always preferred a deep examination of human mental potentialities, moods, emotions, feelings, and personality, over the cold rationale of reason and logic. It celebrated the individual and set aside the collective; it stressed the importance of imagination.

“Hey, Ladybug?” Cat Noir spoke into his earpiece. “How do you know when you find a diamond?”

“ _What do you mean?_ ”

“Did you feel weird at all when you picked up the first one? O-on the elevator?” the superhero tried to be more specific.

There was a pause. “ _Yeah. I mean, kind of. I don’t know how to explain it, exactly. Why? What are you feeling? Are you okay?_ ”

“I’m fine. It’s a bit like a wave of emptiness has just washed over me.”

“ _Do you hear her laughing?_ ” she asked. “ _Ignoblia._ ”

“No. Should I?”

“ _I don’t know. I heard her. Maybe the effects the diamonds have on us are different for everyone._ ”

Cat Noir opened his mouth to say something, but, when no word came out, he simply decided to end the connection with his partner, after wishing her good luck. He turned away from _The Raft_ and took a long look at the other paintings.

Romantic art often depicted the struggle of man against nature, or man against man, but the themes of romantic paintings were not solely what characterized their appurtenance to that particular era. Colors, for instance, were always so carefully chosen, because they were used as a primary mean to convey mood and expression; backgrounds were always black or darkly shadowed, to communicate a fear of the unknown, like some sort of looming danger.

“ _What’s that word…_ impasto _?_ ” Marinette’s voice—without the hint of a warning—echoed inside Cat Noir’s head, as a very detailed image of her face invaded every single fold of his brain. She was pointing at Adrien’s notes, which he had allowed her to borrow, sometime like five or seven years ago. “ _Do I need to know what it means?_ ”

“Impasto _is a painting technique that was used by romantic painters at the time…as a way to add the artist’s emotions to their work, and to manage the background foliage and the lighting_ ,” he had explained, and cringed, as he listened to the sound of his voice in his mind. “ _It’s when the paint is thickly layered on the canvases and the brush or knife strokes are clearly visible. Usually, different colors were applied even before the layers were allowed enough time to dry, and that creates a sort of heavily textured look_. Impasto _was or is not_ only _used by romantic painters, obviously, but…it’s still important to mention it._

“ _It’s kind of amazing, when you look at it more closely. Heavy brush strokes match up with high emotions, like anger, and pain, and fear, right? Well, if you think about it, simply by studying the thickness of a stroke of paint, you can actually—well, to a certain extent, of course—detect the emotion felt by the artist at that exact moment, and…_ ”

She had looked at him then, right there from across the table they were sitting at, inside their old school’s library, and had smiled softly.

“ _W-what? I-is…is something wrong?_ ”

“ _No, no. You just…seem so passionate about the subject_ ,” she had said, chuckling lightly as she did. “ _When you talk about it, your eyes just…light up altogether. It’s really beautiful. You have really nice eyes._ ”

Adrien had blushed then, and looked down. Cat Noir did the same now.

“ _I wish I knew as much as you about all of this_ ,” Marinette had gone on. “ _Maybe then, I’d actually have a chance to pass this class._ ”

“ _It’s my mom_ ,” he had told her. “ _She was an art historian. And a painter. She taught us all of this when we were kids. The credit’s hers, really. The Romantic period was her favorite._ ”

Cat Noir closed his eyes and shook his head to rid his mind of the memory, as he continued to walk up and down the room, now more certain than ever that it contained one of Ignoblia’s diamonds.

Although bold brush strokes were used for skies and landscapes, tight and precise lines in Romantic paintings were key to make up near-to-perfect human figures and draw attention to objects in the foreground. Romantic painters always paid very close care to detail, Cat Noir remembered, as he descried the most intricate ways in which Géricault painted the costume of the imperial officer in his _Charging Chasseur_. The portray was that of a Napoleonic cavalry officer and his horse, both represented at full-scale, and is a perfect example of Géricault’s attempt to compact movement and structure in his art.

There was a time where, on her third or fourth year of university, Marinette had had to tailor a traditional French outfit for one of her classes. The only instruction had been that it had to be as historically accurate as possible. She had gone with her first instinct and had chosen to fashion a uniform that was worn by officers and soldiers of la _Grande Armée_ de Napoleon Bonaparte, picking Géricault’s _Chasseur_ as her main source of inspiration. She had asked Adrien to model her clothes and he still remembered how itchy the fabric had felt against his bare skin the first time he tried them on. He hadn’t said a thing, of course, but Marinette had to have noticed, because she had the issue fixed by his second fitting.

One challenge she had to overcome was to figure out how she was going to fit four times thirteen rows of military-style buttons, or a total of fifty-two individual buttons—which she had, by the way to make herself, because they didn’t make these kinds anymore, and she didn’t want her work to look like some kind of cheap knock-off or something—on the higher part of the vest. Only thirty-three—no, wait, thirty- _four_ —buttons were visible on the painting, Cat Noir had heard her say one time, but Géricault drew it in such a way that guessing the total number of buttons or even deducing where the hidden buttons would’ve been led to very little confusion. If he recalled properly, Marinette had even received some kind of prize for her design, too.

She would sometimes tell Adrien to tag along when she visited the Louvre to go over her notes of Géricault’s painting, or ask for some insight, although most of her research was done in books, on the Internet, and occasionally _à l’Hotêl national des_ _Invalides_. That was when he came to realize that the _Chasseur_ was very much not her favorite romantic piece, like he assumed, but rather Jean Auguste Ingres’ _Grande Odalisque_.

“ _There’s something wrong with this painting_ ,” she had said once. “ _No, don’t tell me what it is. I know you already know. Let me figure it out on my own, Mister Art History major._ ”

The _Odalisque_ was the naked portrait of an unnamed sultan’s concubine. She lied on a blue and gold bedding, and carried a small handheld fan that was inlaid with tiny rhinestones. Her face showed no emotion, but there was something flickering in her eyes, something deep and complex, and incomprehensible.

The painting received lots of criticism when it was first showcased and people started to notice the distorted proportions of the concubine’s body. At the time, it was believed that these quixotic elongations of the pelvis and lower back were merely errors on the part of Ingres, but Romantic painters’ were far too meticulous to allow such blatant anatomical unrealism to be due to something as simple as clumsiness.

“ _She is so beautiful. I could stare at her for hours_ ,” Marinette would say, hugging her notes against her, before she would reluctantly turn away for Ingres’ masterpiece and go back to studying Géricault’s _Chasseur_.

“ _How many diamonds have we got so far?_ ” Viperion’s voice blasted through Cat Noir’s ears, snapping him out of whatever daze he had drowned into. “ _I fished two diamonds from the train station’s undergrounds and I’m on my way to the Luxembourg, hoping to get lucky_.”

“ _I have four diamonds_ ,” Ladybug replied. “ _But I’m not sure where I am exactly. I’ve just let the adder stone guide me_.”

“ _Cat Noir?_ ”

“I’ve…,” he started, but his words died on his tongue. He tried again. “I’m looking for a diamond right now,” he said. “But…I just can’t seem to find it.”

“ _Where are you?_ ” Ladybug wondered.

“How much more time do we have?” Cat Noir asked, instead of answering.

“ _Not much_ ,” Viperion let him know. “ _We still have thirty-two minutes in total to find all the diamonds. I know it looks like a lot, but it really isn’t._ ”

“I know, I know…,” the blond superhero sighed. “Fuck _me_ …”

He closed his eyes to allow himself to breathe, but all he could hear was the sound of a ticking clock, and all he could feel was his legs, slowly turning into disgustingly slimy appendages, while a pair of antennae grew on his forehead.

“I really don’t know how to explain it, but I _know_ there’s a diamond in here,” he muttered. “And I _also_ know I need to get myself moving and fucking find it, but for some reason, all I seem to be able to think about is how only thirty-four out of allegedly fifty-two buttons are showcased on Géricault’s horseman-officer-person-painting-thing.”

“ _It’s not thirty-four, it’s thirty-three,_ ” Ladybug didn’t think before replying. Her answer had been almost automatic.

“What?” Cat Noir let the word slip out, as he rushed back towards the painting of the _Chasseur_ , halfheartedly jostling the few people that would _not_ , for the love of _God_ , get off his way, as he did.

“ _You’re talking about the_ Chasseur _, right? Yeah, it’s thirty-three, not thirty-four._ ”

“Yeah, it _is_ thirty-three,” Cat Noir confirmed, a sly smirk on his face, as he reached for the little tiny round thing that glistened on the _Chasseur_ ’s vest, and which no one seemed to notice. “You clever little hyena…” He ignored the alarming warnings of the gallery attendant and firmly jabbed a claw into the painting to dislodge Ignoblia’s diamond—Ladybug’s powers will deal with that later. “Don’t worry, sir,” he told the guard, “I know my way out.”

The guard looked like he was about to respond, but everything he wanted to say faded away the second he laid eyes on the diamond.

“Okay, so I’ve now got four diamonds in my pocket and some twenty minutes on the clock,” Cat Noir announced into his earpiece, as he leaped over streets and buildings, and ran on rooftops at full pace. “I found the last three pretty easily. I think I’m really getting a hang of this thing.”

“ _That’s great, Cat Noir_ ,” Ladybug chuckled. “ _Where are you headed now?_ ”

“Notre-Dame,” he said, a little grim.

“ _Fun_.”

“I know, right?” he snorted. “I searched the Louvre, Orsay, and the forum. I think Viperion already did the Luxembourg and the universities, right?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” the Snake wheezed. “ _I also did the Pantheon and the National Library._ ”

“Oh, wow, really?” Cat Noir sounded genuinely impressed. “That’s amazing. How many diamonds you got?”

“ _Four. Barely_ ,” he huffed.

“Now, you’re just making me feel bad about myself,” the blond superhero snickered. “I was kinda proud of _my_ four diamonds…”

Viperion ignored Cat Noir’s comment. “ _It’s like you said. An hour is no way near enough. Even if we already knew the diamonds’ exact emplacement the second time around, I don’t think we’d be able to reconstitute the necklace in time._ ”

“You’re being exaggeratedly pessimistic about the situation, Viperion, and that is not helping anyone. Besides, it’s nothing a bit of super-speed, super-stamina, and super-sight can’t fix,” Cat Noir argued. He did a very poor job at it, too. “I think we might just win this thing,” he said, with absolutely no evidence to back up his claim. “How many diamonds you got, Bugaboo?”

“ _Seven_ ,” she replied. “ _I’m moving towards an eighth one, right now._ ”

“Yeah, well, don’t sound _too_ braggy,” Cat Noir was quick to call her out. “Remember that _you_ have the adder stone. That _basically_ makes you a cheater, Bugaboo. So, really, you got nothing to brag about. Me and my extremely close friend Viperion, on the other hand…? Some might even say that we’re naturally gifted.”

He imagined her rolling her eyes at him and smirked at the thought.

“ _You really think you’re being funny, don’t you?_ ”

“Why, Bugaboo, I think I’m adorable.”


	5. Second Chance

“Hey! You’re Viperion, right?” some teenager approached the holder of the Snake Miraculous, readying his phone in his hand as he made his way up to the superhero. “I see you, sometimes, tagging along with Cat Noir and Ladybug. Would you mind if we took a picture?”

Viperion stared at the kid, unfazed. He didn’t seem to have heard what he said. “Um, what?”

The teenager’s posture shifted all at once and the latter suddenly looked like he had just made the biggest mistake of his life. “Uh…a p-picture?” he hesitated, shyly gesturing at his phone.

Viperion raised both his eyebrows at the boy as if surprised. “Oh, yeah, yeah, sure,” he nodded, as he let the teen wrap a cautious hand around his shoulders and take the selfie.

“Thanks, man,” the latter piped. “You’re really cool.”

Viperion forced a smile and watched the fan head back to his friends to show them the photo, before he just turned away to walk in the opposite direction.

The clock was still ticking but he had stopped running some ten minutes ago, and now was aimlessly wandering the streets of Paris, as if waiting for an epiphany. Sometimes, either Ladybug or Cat Noir would talk to him through his earpiece; he’d answer most of their questions, or not, depending on his mood, and would only do so if they were directed at him specifically. He didn’t feel like chatting anyway.

He looked around him as he strolled down the Boulevard du Montparnasse towards the gardens, his arms hanging by his sides, and his eyes, tired. People didn’t seem too concerned by his presence, like they’ve gotten over the fact that magic powers and superheroes were not even a thing outside of pure and absolute fiction up until ten years ago. Or better yet, like they’ve completely forgotten Hawk Moth and all the grief and the chaos that old jerk had brought along. If this had been an actual akuma attack like they’ve been in the past, these same people would be screaming in panic and running around everywhere until they found a safe place to hide.

He shambled past a couple of joggers who were stretching near the entry of the park before he went through the gates. He then made his way to a bench not too far from the fountain and sat down next to a man surrounded by pigeons.

“Hello, Mr. Ramier,” Viperion sighed, not too bothered by the lack of response on the other man’s part. With both hands, he reached for the pigeon that was pecking at Ramier’s left hand and picked it up carefully; the bird did not seem spooked or anything. It didn’t even try to fight it. The superhero guessed that Ramier’s presence might have some kind of soothing effect on the flock, as he gently ran his fingers through the bird’s feathers and plucked out one of Ignoblia’s diamonds, lodged right in between the pigeon’s wings. “It took me a decent amount of going back in time to figure this one out,” he said to no one in particular, putting away the diamond, and unfreezing Ramier in the process. “Welcome back, sir.”

“Oh,” Viperion could see the bit of surprise on Ramier’s face, but the latter brushed it off quickly enough. “Hello, Mr. Viperion. Is everything alright? Are akumas back?”

“Not _yet_ ,” the superhero answered, and he sounded like he was bored out of his mind. “But who knows? Everyone loves a good come back,” he added, sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

Ramier seemed to disagree. “Well, personally, I’d rather they stay gone. I enjoyed these last ten years. It’s been quiet.”

“Yeah, not really, though,” Viperion countered.

“What do you mean?”

The Snake shrugged. “Well, Mr. Ramier, for starters, the world is pretty much going to shit as we speak.”

“The world’s the same,” Ramier countered, softly stroking the back of one of his pigeons. “It was just as bad before as it is now. We’re the ones who’ve changed. We’re more empathetic. Some of us are also becoming angrier. There’s always something to be angry about. And news travels faster.” Viperion pouted at that and laid his back against the bench. The bird that carried Ignoblia’s diamond hopped unto his chest and nestled itself right over his stomach. “He likes you.”

“He looks like a nice little fella,” Viperion said, a small smile on his lips, as he stretched out a hand to pet the bird on its head. He glanced at Mr. Ramier—the man looked like a pigeon himself. “They’re cute. I think I can see why you like them so much.”

Ramier bobbed his head. “Thanks. Many people would have differing opinions on the matter.”

“Their loss,” Viperion replied, then chuckled, when he remembered how dramatic Marinette could get about the subject sometimes. She _hated_ pigeons. Well, she disliked _birds_ in general. She said they freaked her out; she would see one and her immediate reaction was to cover her head. He smiled at that thought. “I’ve got a friend who hates birds,” he told Ramier. “She says they make her sick.”

“Really?” the pigeon-lover wondered. “Well, some people are afraid of dogs.”

Viperion shook his head and tried to hold a laugh. “That’s _true_. Do you think she might just be afraid of birds, then?”

“I don’t know,” Ramier answered. He looked very pensive too, like he was actually taking their exchange seriously. “I don’t know her.”

“You’d like her. She’s very likable,” Viperion added.

“But she doesn’t like birds,” Ramier argued. “I don’t think we’ll have much to talk about.”

Viperion sniggered. “Well, she once designed a hat with a pigeon feather attached to it.”

Ramier crooked an eyebrow at the superhero. “Why did she do _that_?” he asked.

The Snake tilted his head to the side. “I think the theme of the contest was about the city of Paris or something,” he said. “I don’t know. I forgot.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. It’s weird. What was she thinking? She should’ve gone for a seagull feather, in my opinion,” he went on. “Nothing screams more ‘Parisian mornings’ than waking up at 6:00 AM every day because of these damn birds’ inability to shut up,” he grunted, just a little irritated.

Ramier nodded agreeingly. “Yes. I don’t like seagulls either.”

Soon enough, the two men ran out of things to say, but none of them really minded. Viperion cooed at his pigeon, softly scratching the side of its neck and the bird flapped its wings in response. Silence did not bother him most of the time. He liked being alone; that was when he came up with some of his best songs.

“We’re not really allowed to feed them,” Ramier began, giggly, as he slid a hand into the inner pocket of his jacket and took out a small bag of bird seeds he had hidden there, “but…there are not many people around. I think it might be safe to risk it,” he whispered, a silly look on his face.

The holder of the Snake Miraculous smiled, and relaxed, as he looked at his new friend throwing food at the birds; the pigeon that was sitting on his chest flew away to get some as well. A few minutes went by, where neither he nor Ramier said anything, just sat there quietly, watching people as they walked by, and listening to the kids that were playing with their miniature boats by the fountain.

Viperion could feel the cold air against his cheeks, his superhero costume protecting him everywhere else. The sky was a mixture of light blue and gray where the sun looked like a distant yellow lightbulb. The flowers bent with the breeze and colored the place with yellow and purple and pink, and the smell of freshly cut grass lingered around him.

“Pardon the question,” the man with a pigeon-shaped head was the one to speak first, as he sat back against the bench, pinching his pants around the knees to raise it just a bit as he did. “What are you doing here? Transformed, I mean.”

“Oh, um… Well, I’m technically on a mission,” the superhero replied. “I’ve been at it for quite some time, though, so… I thought I’d rest a little.”

“Ah.” He paused. “W-what kind of mission?”

“Well, it’s a bit like an egg hunt, you know? But with diamonds,” Viperion tried to explain, assuming that Cat Noir’s comparison would be the easiest way to do it.

“Diamonds?” Ramier repeated.

“Yeah,” the Snake sighed. “There’s this villain, Ignoblia? Yeah, she scattered a total of twenty-seven diamonds all across Paris and now we—Ladybug, Cat Noir, and I—are supposed to find them or we’re going to be turned into ants.”

Ramier blinked at that and turned away from Viperion to face his flock of pigeons. “My, my, that seems awfully complicated, if you ask me,” he remarked. “Have you found any?”

“The closest we’ve been was sixteen diamonds,” the superhero said, pouting. “I’ve been rewinding time for quite a few hours already. I can feel my kwami getting tired.”

Although Viperion could guess how much the man really wanted to know, Ramier did not ask him what a kwami was, and the superhero was grateful for that. “You should use the pigeons to help you,” he suggested instead.

Viperion snorted. “What? _Pigeons_?”

“I understand it might seem odd to you, but these pigeons in particular are a lot like magpies. They like to build their nests with shiny things,” he said, cupping a pigeon in both his hands and lifting it up to his face to kiss it. “It shouldn’t take them too long to find the diamonds. Besides, they are so many of them. You can definitely use that as an advantage. You see, each one can search for a diamond, so they’ll all be searching for all the diamonds simultaneously. This way, you’ll be able to do it even more quickly.”

The holder of the Snake furrowed his eyebrows at the bird-obsessed man and was about to say something when the little bit of inspiration he was waiting for dropped like a bombshell inside his mind.

He got to his feet immediately and thanked Mr. Ramier before he slapped the top of his Ouroboros and screamed, “ _Second Chance!_ ” to rewind the clock.

When Viperion opened his eyes again, it was like the past half an hour had never happened. He was back standing next to Cat Noir and Ladybug, just a couple feet away from the main entrance of City Hall. The latter was looking at her _Lucky Charm_ , her face creased with confusion, as she listened to her partner trying to guess how to use the adder stone. Well, _trying_ was a bit of an exaggeration actually—it was hardly as if he was taking the whole situation seriously.

Viperion rolled his eyes at the Black Cat, which he was almost certain the latter did not miss, and took the box and the adder stone from Ladybug’s hands. She looked up at him in query, was just about to speak, when the superhero with the turquoise-colored costume lifted a hand to stop her.

“Believe me,” he sighed, “we don’t have time.” There was something restless in his voice, something tired and heavy, and immediately, Ladybug understood that that wasn’t the first time Viperion has stood before her to tell her this. “I know how to do this,” he said, raising the tiny black and red box to his partners’ eye level. “We need Multimouse.”

“M-Multimouse?” Cat Noir echoed, suddenly pale. He would’ve asked why, if the answer to that wasn’t already obvious.

Viperion nodded. “Yes. I know where to find sixteen diamonds, but we need Multimouse to find the eleven others.” He sounded breathless. “Cat Noir and I can try to gather as many diamonds as possible while you go and get her,” he instructed Ladybug, before he turned to Cat Noir. “How much time do you need to get to the Eiffel tower?” he asked.

“At full speed? Around four or five minutes,” the blond superhero tried his best to tone down the bragging. “Why? What do you want me to do?”

“You’ll need to go right now. There’s a diamond in the elevator. You also need to be careful around those, because they seem to be able to toy with yours and Ladybug’s minds specifically,” Viperion explained. Cat Noir pressed his lips together and listened to his words attentively, taking the information in. “After you retrieve it, I’ll have Multimouse join you à l’Arc de Triomphe. When she calls on her power, you _will_ need to carry her and her clones around the city because she is _not_ as fast as us.” He gestured to Cat Noir’s baton. “Take out your earpiece so we’ll stay in contact. I will send a list of all the places we’ve previously found the diamonds, as well as the places where we thought they might be some more. I-is it all clear?”

“Y-yeah. All clear.”

“Perfect. Now, _go_. I’ll gather as many diamonds as I can on my side as well, while Ladybug will fetch the Mouse Miraculous and get in touch with its holder.”

“Seems like a solid plan,” Cat Noir replied. “You got it.”

He unhooked his pole from his belt and pressed his thumb against the neon green paw that flickered at the bottom of it in order to expel his earpiece from the other side. He caught it between his index and middle finger and stuck it in his human left ear, before he nodded at his partners and took off.

He extended his baton mid-run and used it as support to jump on the top of the closest building, continuing his race against time from above the city.

Viperion turned to Ladybug then. “What’s the ‘but’?” she wondered, reading him like his thoughts were tattooed on his forehead.

The Snake took in a deep breath. “You’ll have to keep the stone from falling into pieces even after you drop the red suit.” Ladybug’s eyes rounded at that. “I know, I _know_. But you need to.” He cursed at himself. “Yeah, and also… _Multimouse_ will need to make copies of it as well.”

“You know, if you wanted to kill me, there are better and more efficient ways to do it,” Ladybug pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

He shook his head. “Look, Mar, believe me, I’m exhausted. I’ve been at it for close to eight hours now. If there was another way, I’d tell you.”

“Alright, fine,” she huffed. “Fuck. That sucks.” She glanced down at the little transparent rock she had in hand. “What even is this? Why is it so important? What does it do?”

“It’s an adder stone,” Viperion told her, and, by the tone of his voice, Ladybug could tell he was repeating himself for the millionth time at least. “You put it against your eye to find the diamonds.”

“How will I recognize them?” she asked, immediately pressing the stone against her eye to look through it. “Holy f…”

“You’ll know,” the Snake cut her off. “They glow, o-or something. Okay. You go and get Multimouse now, then meet Cat à l’Arc de Triomphe. I’ll tell him Ladybug is out looking for diamonds as well.”

Ladybug smirked. “Glad you’re on the team, _Snake-boy_.”

He rolled his eyes at her and slapped his palm across his face. She couldn’t hold down a laugh. “Marinette, no. Don’t. Never. _Ever_.” She giggled louder. He still wasn’t amused. “I’m serious! Because I _will_ kill you. _And_ your family. And I don’t mean just Tom and Sabine. I mean your _entire_ family. I know where everyone lives.”

“You do you, love,” she clicked her tongue at him, as she grasped at her yo-yo and threw it somewhere toward the blue rooftops of Paris. “But I think that nickname is gonna stick. I kind of like the sound of it. _Snake-boy_. It makes it seem like you’re one of those stupid New Age comic superheroes.”

“Would you just go, already?” he half-shouted, stomping his right foot to the ground, but snickering at the same time. It was a somewhat odd combination. “You’re wasting time, _Bugaboo_.”

***

Cat Noir stood at the top de l’Arc de Triomphe, right above the very center de la Place Charles de Gaulle. There weren’t as many tourists in the capital during wintertime, but Paris was still amongst the most visited cities in the world, even off-season. People left him alone most of the time, only rarely asking him for pictures or autographs, and he wondered sometimes if it was because they were afraid to bother him, because they thought he was intimidating, or if they had just gotten over the whole superhero thing. He pushed the thought away and sat at the edge of the monument to wait for Multimouse.

He watched cars as they drove by the traffic circle, pedestrians crossing the streets and getting into buses and taxis, Parisians, living their lives like Hawk Moth had never happened. He had to give it up for Ignoblia, though, for being able to keep the whole thing so low-key and not trying to destroy the city or something. Akumas could never do that; they sought chaos and destruction and thirsted for revenge. Cat Noir still remembered how many times Ladybug had to use her powers to patch up the Eiffel tower.

Now, his partner and he had entire chapters in History books dedicated to them and children were taught stories about the superhero duo in schools. High school students today knew about Stoneheart, the first akuma, they knew about Sentimonsters and Miraculouses.

They grew up watching segments of Lila Rossi’s trial on T.V., when she was accused of collaborating with Hawk Moth and Mayura; at sixteen, mistakenly thinking that it would make her look more interesting, the girl had casually let it slip out, on camera, that she used to work for Paris’ greatest supervillain. She tried to deny it après coup, but the tape of the interview had been leaked and the video had gone viral in minutes. Not twenty-four hours had gone by before the French authorities were put on the case.

At eighteen, Lila was charged by the Court of Cassation with crimes against humanity and imprisoned. She was still in there right now, Cat Noir believed. And they’ll probably leave her there until she finally snaps and gives up Hawk Moth’s true identity.

Cat Noir didn’t know what to make out of the whole thing, really. He went to school with Lila; I mean, she was horrible and a class-A bitch, but he didn’t think she deserved to rot in jail for the rest of her life. He sighed, stared at his breath condense in the cold air. He never liked Lila. She was mean and a bully. She’d always pick on Marinette; the latter was too tough to let it affect her, though.

“Don’t think too hard, you’ll get wrinkles,” a familiar voice chuckled next to Cat Noir’s right ear, breaking him out of his reverie. He pursed his lips at no one, biting down a smile, and shook his head, before he turned around to face Multimouse. “Hey,” she greeted him, and she was so beautiful his heart literally stopped.

“Mari— I mean _Multimouse_! H-hi!” He jumped off the railing and stood up. “You’re…you’re here! Er, where is Ladybug?”

Multimouse put her hands on her hips, a sly look on her face. “She’s with Viperion. They’re retrieving the diamonds he knows where to find.” She cleared her throat and took a small step forward. The blue of her eyes stabbed his. “Looks like we’re teaming up, aren’t we?”

He nodded, glanced away. “Ha, yeah. Looks like it.”

She pouted. “Yeah, well, don’t look so thrilled about it,” she snorted, crossing her arms together.

“N-no, no! S-sorry, I… Please, don’t take it like that,” Cat Noir was quick to apologize, his cat ears already flat across the top of his head. “I just… I-I _worry_ , but… You’ve done this before, so obviously I’m just being stupid, er… Y-you don’t seem too uh out of your element.” He shook his head, gritting his teeth and cursing himself mentally. He tried to relax. It wasn’t happening. His heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. “I-I guess I don’t really know what Ladybug does with the Miraculouses behind my back, do I?” It was supposed to be a joke, but Multimouse didn’t laugh at it. “W-whatever. I’m glad… I’m glad you’re here, Multimouse.”

“You’re sweet, Cat Noir,” she beamed. “You don’t need to worry about me. I know what I’m doing.” She took out a little transparent stone she had in her costume’s pocket. It had a hole in it. “Ladybug gave me this, as well.”

Without thinking, Cat Noir walked the few steps that separated him from Multimouse and took the stone from her. “Isn’t that her _Lucky Charm_? Doesn’t she…need it?” He paused when he looked up at the Mouse and realized how close they were standing. He stood back, gulping audibly.

“Well, I need it more,” Multimouse countered, smirking. “She’ll be fine without it.”

“Did she tell you what it was?”

Multimouse nodded. “It’s called an adder stone. Apparently, it allows us to find magic objects that might be invisible to the naked eye,” she almost purred, biting on her lower lip and smiling provocatively, as she took a confident step toward Cat Noir.

Right. Mice adapted to their environment. They ate what the people around them ate; they had a flexible mind and an elastic personality. They were very observant and could accommodate to any and all situations. They _became_ the people around them. And the holders’ personalities often changed to complement that of their Miraculous.

“Shall we?” she whispered, taking the stone out of Cat Noir’s hands, then reaching for her jumping rope. “ _Multitude!_ ”

Multimouse made Cat Noir an extra copy of the adder stone. She told him it was so he wouldn’t just wait around for her doing nothing, while she was looking for the diamonds; well, she said it in a nice way.

He was able to retrieve a total of three diamonds on his own, including the one in the elevator of the Eiffel tower, before the first clone of Multimouse beeped him to come and get her à la Gare de l’Est.

“Does Ladybug let you guys borrow the Miraculouses regularly for you to train with?” he wondered, looking up instinctively. He regretted it instantly, however, when he remembered that Multimouse—a mini-scale version of her, at least—had been standing on his head. She lost balance. “Sorry,” he muttered, readjusting his stance.

Her steps tickled, as her tiny, almost Barbie doll-sized feet walked between his cat ears and along the rest of his scalp. She seized a lock of his hair and used it to slide down the side of his face— He caught her in his hands and let her unto the roof floor, before he lied down on the ground himself, and flipped on his stomach, to be at eye-level with her.

“So? Does she?” he asked again, resting his chin against his fist, while Multimouse stood before him, knee-high to a grasshopper— _literally_ —but big like a Tinker Bell.

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, you helped us defeat an akuma once when we were fourteen, and then, for six years after that, it’s like you’ve never even existed.” He paused, and looked like he was thinking about something important. “But you came back, four years ago, and out of nowhere, might I add, to lend us a hand in that drug case with the mayor, before you disappeared again. I mean, I haven’t even heard from you—or better yet, _of you_ —since…whatever.” He shook his head and snickered. “Also, last time I saw you, you could barely keep your clones alive for more than an hour, let alone copy _objects_ ,” he observed.

“You sure do keep tabs on me, don’t you, Cat Noir?” She shrugged. “I have had the occasion to um, _experiment_ with my Miraculous, yeah.” She smiled, flipped with her hand the air where her hair would’ve been if it wasn’t tied up, and struck a confident pose. “I’ve gotten pretty good at it, too, wouldn’t you agree? I mean, I always was kind of a natural, but even Mozart played his music and practiced every day.”

Cat Noir crooked an eyebrow at her, a mischievous light twinkling in his eyes. “Cocky.” He clicked his tongue and she smirked at him. “You’re not a permanent holder, though, or are you?”

Multimouse shook her head. “I’m not, no. But neither are any of us, well, apart from Ladybug and you.”

“And Viperion,” he added.

“And Viperion,” she repeated, grinning slyly. “That’s right.”

“You know, it’s weird, but… I didn’t think Ladybug was gonna lend you the Mouse Miraculous again, after…well, after what happened with Kwamibuster. When… I discovered who you are and all.” He furrowed his eyebrows. “Did she ever tell you why she changed her mind?”

Multimouse blinked at him, a bit surprised. “Why didn’t you ask her?”

He tilted his head to the side, blushing just lightly. “I forget.” She chuckled.

“Yeah, she was actually planning on giving the Miraculous to someone else, but then… That person got uh, _compromised_. And, well, it was easier like this anyway.” She pouted. “Mullo—my kwami—trusted me and I already knew my way around all…” She gestured to everything that surrounded her, “… _that_.”

“Compromised?” Cat Noir echoed, immediately propping himself up on his elbows. “H-how do you mean?”

Multimouse giggled at that. “Well, Cat Noir, she got…pregnant. Then she moved away with her boyfriend and their kid.”

“ _Oh_.” He shook his head and let himself relax again. “Right. Well, it worked out alright in the end, didn’t it?”

“Only alright? You wound me, Cat Noir.”

The latter was just about to speak when Multimouse interrupted him to let him know that one of her clones was ready for a pick-up. He got to his feet immediately and reached for the tiny superhero, which he sat on his shoulder, before he grabbed his baton and started running.

The clone wasn’t too far away, waiting for them on top of a street lamp à la Place de la République, Ignoblia’s diamond in her arms looking like a giant disco ball, and, when they got to her, she simply merged with the slightly bigger Multimouse and gave her diamond to Cat Noir. He took it and slid it in his jacket’s pocket, while he waited for his friend to get rid of the extra adder stone.

“Hey, you good?” he worried, when Multimouse looked a little too pale to his liking. “You look tired. Do you need to rest?”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and climbed up his arm, towards his shoulder. “No,” she said. “It’ll only make it worse. I’m just a little dizzy, that’s all. Let’s get this over with.”

Cat Noir did not utter a word; he could only comply.

The pair flew rather quickly around the city’s neighborhoods, picking up diamonds and Multimice fairly easily, before they were called back to Notre-Dame, where Viperion was waiting for them, with nine diamonds in his possession.

“Where is Ladybug?” Cat Noir asked him, as he handed him the rest of the diamonds. “It’s all there. I counted them myself.”

Viperion glanced at him and smiled, as he reached for his harp and swiftly undid one of its wires. It was immediately replaced by another one. Cat Noir was surprised to find that it was supple and fine, but surely tough enough to carry all twenty-seven of Ignoblia’s diamonds. Its gold will certainly complement them well.

“Ladybug had to de-transform,” the Snake finally answered, gently fixing the diamonds unto the golden thread. “She’ll be on her way. Would you care to confront Ignoblia with us, Multimouse?” he wondered innocently, but the glimmer that shined in his eyes was all but above suspicion.

Fortunately for her, the Mouse did not have to take part in the exchange, for her necklace started beeping. Her gaze flickered between the two men, before Viperion decided to break the silence.

“Cat Noir is faster than me,” he said. “He’ll bring you back and you can return your Miraculous to him. Do you have Ladybug’s adder stone?” he asked, stretching out a hand towards her. Multimouse nodded and reached for the stone in her pocket to give it back.

She had reabsorbed all her clones already, but Viperion knew well the extent of the effort it took her to keep the _Lucky Charm_ intact while she was not wearing her Ladybug suit; indeed, it was possible for Miraculous holders to keep alive the magic of their Miraculous even when they weren’t transformed, but this kind of ruse was an art only few were able to perfect.

“Hey, you alright?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine, no need to worry.” When her necklace beeped a second time, she turned to Cat Noir. “Let’s go.”

“You drew on a great deal of power today, Multimouse,” Viperion reminded her. “Take it easy, okay?”

“I will. You still have eighteen minutes on your clock,” she replied. “Don’t make us repeat it all again.”

The Snake chuckled wryly. “I’ll try my best.”

Multimouse smiled feebly, before she let herself fall off the very top of the cathedral, unto a nearby building. Her landing proved to be strenuous, as her feet met the rooftop floor in the most inelegant of ways, her body, almost tipping over because of her lack of balance. Her whole stance was grossly uncoordinated, and her movements, utterly chaotic. She was tired, drained; only barely holding it together.

She ran before Cat Noir could make it to her and headed towards the bridge, crossing the Seine at full speed, the Black Cat right behind her. She used her rope to try to heave some control over the force and length of her jumps, but found maintaining it to be increasingly onerous.

“I could carry you,” Cat Noir suggested. “You’re tired. Let me help you.”

“Whatever do you mean? I’m feeling fantastic,” Multimouse shot back, grinning, before she leaped over the space that separated two buildings.

Her confidence was unfounded; her dive was clumsy. She barely reached the edge of the second building, but her hands slipped and she rolled off the side of the blue-gray roof. It was a bit like her muscles were moving absurdly, with absolutely no sense of direction. She would’ve probably fallen right off if it wasn’t for her quick thinking: she grasped at both her jump rope’s handles and flung her magic weapon over her head, to tie it around a chimney. She then used it to hiss herself up.

“Your stubbornness is costing us precious seconds,” Cat Noir commented.

“It’s sweet for you to offer, Cat Noir, but I don’t need your help,” she insisted, and there was something shaking in her eyes, like she was on the verge of crying. “I can do this.”

Cat Noir pressed his lips together and didn’t say a thing.

Multimouse sighed. “I’m sorry, you’re right.” She glanced away and crossed her arms together. “I just…”

“It’s okay,” he cut in, before she could go on. “Y-you don’t… You don’t owe me an explanation.”

“Thanks.” She inhaled shakily. “My parents’ bakery is only a couple streets away,” she told him. “You know the way?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” she crooned, walking the few steps that separated her from him.

Cat Noir’s upper body tensed when she smiled at him, and he was so hot suddenly, his suit so tight and uncomfortable. He could feel his cheeks glow with pink when she circled her arms around his shoulders, bringing them closer together.

“Is this okay?” she wanted to know. He nodded, a bit too eagerly, but didn’t speak. “How do you want to do this?”

“I…” His voice died in his mouth. Her face softened and she waited for him patiently. He turned his gaze away, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He tried to clear his mind, to stop the screeching noise of blood rushing to his ears, to quiet the thoughts, to drown the images. When he opened his eyes again, Multimouse was still here, her arms hanging around him, and she had no idea of the storm he was fighting behind his mask; because she didn’t know who he was, didn’t know what he knew…didn’t feel what he…felt.

It was as if her magic cloak—the mystical aura that surrounded Miraculous holders and kept their identities safe—had been pierced. He could see her face right through her disguise, like she wasn’t even wearing one.

Cautiously, he laid his hands on her waist. He glanced at her, searching her eyes for the smallest sign of distress. Her lips parted and suddenly, her mouth was all he could look at. He slid his palms slowly along her sides, pressing the tip of his claws only so lightly against her, until he reached the end of her thighs. He hooked his fingers behind her knees and lifted her up, swiftly guiding her legs around him.

“I-is that okay?”

It was her turn to nod, as shyness spread across her face.

He crooked an eyebrow at her, looking amused. “Cat got your tongue?”

She pursed her lips at him, and smirked. “Not _yet_.”

She didn’t allow him much time to formulate an answer to that; she hugged him closer and rested her head against the hollow of his neck, breathing him in. It wasn’t long before he started running and they were moving again.

Just as she’d indicated him, the Dupain-Chengs’ bakery wasn’t too far away and he was able to reach it in under two minutes. She told him to round the building; that she’d left a window open for her to slide back in. She said that she wasn’t alone.

He helped her through the window, and waited, perched on his baton. Her necklace beeped again, but she undid it before the Miraculous ran out of battery completely, and handed it back to him.

“Thanks, Marinette,” he whispered. “You should get some rest.”

“Of course.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else and so, when he didn’t, Marinette couldn’t help but feel the tiniest bit of disappointment. He smiled, and she returned his smile instantly, before he stood on the end of his baton, like he was reaching for something a little higher up. When he got back to her level, he had a flower in hand, probably one of the peonies Sabine was growing on the roof.

She chuckled. “For me? You flatter me.”

“You were a great help today,” he said, instead of answering. “We _literally_ couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You are most welcome, Cat Noir,” she cooed, taking the flower from between his fingers, careful as not to let them burn her.

He bowed his head and, mere seconds later, he was gone.

Marinette still had a silly smile on her face when she summoned Tikki out of hiding and called on her transformation. In her hurry to get back home and retrieve the Mouse Miraculous earlier, she had discarded her ‘civilian’ mask somewhere in her own apartment, and so had to result to do it the old-fashioned way, when the villains she battled weren’t exclusively made of human flesh and sins.

She swallowed the thought to rid her mind of it and, for the umpteenth time today, slipped through her old bathroom window, into the city.

She joined Viperion and Cat Noir at Notre-Dame; they already had the necklace fixed, and were only waiting for her to face Ignoblia. City Hall was only a couple blocks south.

“How’re you feeling?” Viperion asked her, lowering his voice, but both knew well Cat Noir could hear them perfectly.

“I’m alright.” She tried to sound convincing. The Snake did not seem fooled.

But they were starting to run out of time, so he didn’t insist. Instead, he handed her the necklace, as well as the adder stone, and told her to go before him, so he could keep an eye on her from behind.

Against all odds, Ignoblia was sitting inside Juleka’s cage with the latter, like she has been keeping her company, while the superhero trio was out retrieving her diamonds across the city. Luka’s sister did not seem unresponsive; on the contrary, she looked energetic almost, as if she had forgotten where she was, or even the situation Ignoblia has put her in. They were talking. They appeared friendly. Viperion did not know what to make of it.

“Hey!” he yelled at the villain, trying to get her attention. He succeeded; Ignoblia turned towards him and smiled.

She got to her feet immediately and headed towards her opponents, fading through the bars of her champion’s cage. “You did it, then,” she gurgled, as her lips curled up slowly to uncover her monstrous teeth. She grinned at the superheroes and stretched out a hand towards Ladybug, requesting her diamonds back. “And it only took you ten trials and a half,” she went on, devious, as she walked back to the cage, and gently slipped the necklace around Juleka’s neck.

The jewel glowed and the champion accepted it. The giant birdcage melted around her, freeing her, as well as the three superheroes, from the curse of the Belle of Adamant. Ignoblia reached for her hand to help her up, before she guided her back to the trio.

Viperion almost snatched his sister away from the Hyena’s grip and growled at the villain. The latter kept her terrifying smile on, not seeming too insulted by his gesture.

“I was just getting used to the idea of being stuck in a loop,” she said, winking at the Snake. She turned to Ladybug and Cat Noir next, and curtsied. The strange sight was so surprising, their eyes popped out of their heads to roll on the ground. “Ladybug, Black Cat, you earned the Lion Miraculous. It is yours to keep.” She straightened up after that, her awful grin, forever glued on her face. “Hopefully, the next time we fight, we will be on the same side.” She glanced at Juleka. “Goodbye, darling. It had been a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

And then, she was gone, as swiftly as she had appeared, and the trio could finally breathe again.

“That…was _so_ weird,” Ladybug was the first to speak. She grabbed the adder stone and threw it towards the sky. “ _Miraculous Ladybug!_ ” she exclaimed, to rid the city of Ignoblia’s cage, and fix any damage that had been spread by her spell. Juleka’s diamond necklace though did not disappear—but seeing as it was not causing any harm, Ladybug decided to ignore it.

“I’ll take her back,” Viperion told his friends, as he gestured at his sister. “I’ll make sure she’s alright. You go. It’s been a long day.”

When Ladybug landed on her old bathroom’s floor and dropped her transformation, she fell over and hit her head on the sink.

“Marinette!” Tikki shrieked, too worried about her holder to remember to keep her voice down.

“I’m fine, Tikki,” the bluenette tried to reassure her, but the kwami wasn’t duped. “I promise,” she insisted. She swiped a hand across her forehead to see if she was bleeding, and relaxed when she saw she wasn’t.

She had to hold onto the toilets to get up, before she headed towards the door, unlocked it, and called Tikki into her earrings, before she went back downstairs.

Adrien was there, sitting on the couch, watching the news, and she felt bad when she realized that she’d almost forgotten about him. She made her way to him and took place in the empty seat next to him. He nodded at her.

“All good?”

“Sorry,” she apologized, swallowing any feeling of embarrassment. “I didn’t take too long, did I? I-I had to wash it and then dry it again,” she pursued. “A nightmare…”

He chuckled. “No worries.”

“Is it weird that I’m famished? I know we just ate,” she said, glancing back at the kitchen from above her shoulder.

“I can fetch you another piece of pie if you’d like,” he suggested, ever so zealous.

“Nah, I’ll get one myself later,” she tsked. “But thanks…”

“You look a little pale,” he remarked. “You’re feeling alright?”

She scoffed. “Who would’ve guessed that spending a little more than half an hour with my head turned upside down was not the smartest idea?” she joked.

“Not _you_ , apparently,” he replied, snickering, and she kicked his knee—softly—to make him pay for his comment. He laughed.

“Can you pass me the remote, please?”

“Sure.”

The T.V. remote was on the coffee table. He grabbed it and tossed it toward his friend, before he reached for his phone. Just as he did, it beeped and turned on. “It’s my driver,” he told no one, sliding his thumb across his locked screen to open the notification message. “He says he’s waiting for me downstairs if I wish to go home.” He turned to Marinette, a worried pout on his face. “I-I can stay a little longer, if you need. It’s really no bother.”

The bluenette shook her head. “No, no… I’m just gonna rest…for a while. Watch T.V.” She paused, and laid the back of her head against the arm of the couch. “You go. You’ve had enough of me, I’m sure.”

“You sure?” he still wondered, just in case.

Marinette beamed at him. “ _Yes_ , Adrien. I’m a big girl.”

He smirked. “Okay, then. No reason to overstay my welcome.” He got to his feet, but not fast enough to dodge another kick from Marinette.

“You’re always welcome here, you know that, right?”

His face softened. “Of course, I do, Mar.”

“Hey, Adrien?” she called him, right when she heard him reach for the door. She imagined him turning around.

“Yes?”

“Say hi to Felix for me, yeah?” she piped, paining to hold down a giggle.

***

Adrien greeted his chauffeur the second he got inside the car; the latter only bobbed his head at him, before he proceeded to lock the doors and start the engine. He then pressed on a small button hidden somewhere under the wheel to draw out the automated screen between them, giving his boss’ son some privacy. He’d never really been a very chatty person, anyway.

The blond man merely shrugged, as he relaxed against his seat. He could feel Plagg purring in his jacket’s inner pocket, sleeping soundly after gulping down three stinky pieces of Camembert. He hadn’t had to use his _Cataclysm_ today, he thought, but, if he were to believe anything Ignoblia’s told them, then he did indeed spend these last eight to ten hours transformed, even if he didn’t feel them go by. His kwami had, and he was exhausted.

He glanced down at his ring; its weight sat heavy on his finger. When they asked, he usually told people it was a family heirloom. He didn’t bring it up otherwise, or tried to draw any sort of attention towards it. His father never seemed too preoccupied with it; Adrien was hardly sure if the latter ever once even noticed it.

When he transformed, the silver it was forged in turned to black gold and a nice emerald gem grew on the ring’s face to replace the Lapis crest of the Miraculous of the Black Cat. It was a very unique piece of jewelry, embedded with a sort of dark and ancient magic which he sometimes still failed to fully comprehend. There were days where he wondered about the ones who created the Miraculouses; about their intentions, their aims. He wondered about the men who wore the ring of the Black Cat before him and the names they had chosen for themselves.

Plagg did not speak of his old holders often. He didn’t like to think about them, he told Adrien once, nor did he enjoy reminiscing the time he’d spent with them. He’d much rather keep pushing the memories down or away, or forget about them entirely.

Adrien sighed. Ladybug and he still knew very little about the history of their jewels; he’s had his ring for ten whole years, but has yet to unlock any new powers, abilities, new weapons. He’s sharpened his baton, but that was about it. The Scrolls were not easy to read and transcribe, and sometimes, he felt as if Ladybug had given up, that she was content with the small bit of information she had about her earrings. Well, it was either that, or the fact that she continued, even now, to conveniently leave things out of conversations.

He shook his head and pressed his forehead against the cold glass of his window.

Ignoblia was the holder of the Hyena Miraculous—a Miraculous he’d never heard of before, although _she_ seemed to know a great deal about his and Ladybug’s magic jewelry. Even Hawk Moth knew more about the Black Cat and the Ladybug than they did. That bit always managed to annoy him way more than he liked to admit.

Multimouse’s powers have developed over the years, he reckoned, as the idea crawled right between the two halves of his brain, like a caterpillar getting ready to nest. Nevertheless, she still was too weak to handle the force of their impact; Adrien saw how hard it had been for her to monitor her clones, keep a certain harmony between them. She made over fifteen copies of Ladybug’s adder stone and made it seem like it was no big deal, but he still did not miss the way she’d grown more and more quiet every minute that went by, how the magic of her suit enfeebled, how she fell and lost balance more frequently.

It was hard for him to stop, whenever he started thinking about Marinette. He still felt her arms and her legs around him, her heart, beating right next to his own, her breath, hot, and wet, and wonderful, against his skin. That woman could tear apart every last piece of him and he still wouldn’t be able to fall out of love with her.

When they finally rolled up before the huge gates of the Agreste mansion, they were already wide open. Adrien thought it odd, but it wasn’t enough to alert him. The Gorilla would usually drive the car all the way up to the door of the house to drop him off, before heading to the garage. This time, however, he stopped right in the middle of the driveway and turned the engine off.

Without a second thought, Adrien opened the door and hurried out, only to freeze when he was faced by a large group of uniformed men and women that surrounded the mansion, presenting their arms, and waiting for their next order. There were also five very large cars parked on the grass, with more people inside them. Nadja Chamack and her crew were there as well, making the most out of the chaos, trespassing Gabriel Agreste’s private property.

The Gorilla got out right after Adrien, quickly positioning himself before him, as he carefully guided him towards the house.

“W-what’s happening?” the blond man asked, but his chauffeur did not have an answer for him.

He didn’t have to wait long though, for the doors to the Agreste mansion flew open, with his father appearing at the center of the front porch, looking more enraged than ever.

“Father!” Adrien shouted, before he finally noticed the cuffs the latter wore around his wrists, and the man that was pushing him towards the stairs. He was about to run to him, when the Gorilla wrapped an arm around him to keep him in place. “What…what are they doing? _What the hell is happening_?” Adrien yelled again, but still, no answer. “Felix!” he exclaimed, when he saw his brother walk out behind Gabriel. His heart skipped a beat.

This time, he well ignored all of his bodyguard’s silent warnings and broke out of the latter’s grip to race towards his family.

“Adrien!” his father exclaimed. “Adrien, get inside. Stay with your brother.” There was urgency in his voice, a sentiment that left his son feeling sick, and empty.

“Father, what’s wrong? Where are they taking you?”

“This is all a big misunderstanding,” Gabriel replied, tugging at his hands, before he was handled by the policeman behind him.

“Gabriel Agreste, you are under arrest on suspicion of being the man who calls himself Hawk Moth,” a woman with a high-rank uniform spoke into a microphone.

Adrien turned around to look at her. “W- _What_?”

“You have the right to remain silent,” she continued. “Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning.”

“ _Felix_! What happened? W- _why_ …?” Adrien cried, as he watched his father being taken away.

“If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you..”

“I don’t know, Adrien,” the latter’s brother spat at the crowd of officers that menacingly stood in their front yard. “But they sure do look like a bunch of imbeciles.” He sighed deeply, rested a comforting hand on his brother’s shoulder, and squeezed. “It’s gonna be okay, we are going to fight this.”

“If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time.”

“We’ll get him out. I promise. It’s only a question of time.”


End file.
